


The End Is Just a New Beginning

by AlmightyMirage



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Background Poe/Zorii if you squint, Ben/Kylo Ren is mentioned, But not tagged as a character to keep this with the right crowd, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Smut, F/M, Finn starts his force training, Force-Sensitive Finn (Star Wars), Friends to Lovers, It's a painful road, Poe has a potty mouth when he's mad, Post-TRoS, Reconciliation, Rose has some unresolved issues, but it's worth it in the end
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-19
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:47:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 35
Words: 65,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23218747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlmightyMirage/pseuds/AlmightyMirage
Summary: Set at the end of TROS. Rey returns to base, and tells Finn what really happened at the surface of Exegol. They have some things to work out.
Relationships: Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Finn/Rey (Star Wars)
Comments: 283
Kudos: 43





	1. How are you alive?

It had been a long journey for Rey. Not just the trip from Exegol back to Ajan Kloss, but the journey from escaping with Finn and BB-8 from Jakku, all the way to where she was now, sitting in the cockpit of a water damaged X-Wing, nearing the atmosphere of Ajan Kloss. She was exhausted. In the time since she escaped off Jakku, she couldn’t remember a single time when she truly got to rest. And the times she tried, her mind was tormented and explored by someone she never invited in there. But that was over now. She could finally rest.

As she approached the landing area with the X-Wing, crowds started to appear. It was probably the last thing she wanted right then and there. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate their…appreciation, but she just wanted to get to her friends, the ones that tried to be there for her, through every good and bad day on their odd journey. As she walked through the crowds of cheering people, she could see the face she most wanted to see. Finn. The man that had done so much for her, who had been the first to ever actually come back for her, who had supported her no matter how nasty she had been on her bad days. Yet when she saw him, his face showed all kinds of emotions. Confusion, relief, sadness and joy all packed into one. It pained her to see him this conflicted, but as he hugged her flanked by Poe, that seemed to go away for a moment. 

After Rey got a quick medical check, she stayed with the party for a while. She had to show up to be a part of the fun, but part of her just wanted to disappear. She was used to being alone, and apart from a handful of people she preferred to keep it that way. So, when Finn asked to go somewhere more private, she was happy to oblige. Being asked away by the co-general was the perfect excuse to escape from the adoring masses, after all. 

After following Finn to a more secluded area of the camp, he stopped and turned around, with his mind showing that he clearly had something on his mind. He looked at her, opened his mouth, but nothing came out.

“Finn, are you okay? Why did you lead me back here?” Rey asked him, wondering why he had asked her there.

“Rey….I felt you die…” Finn finally said, after taking a breath to collect his thoughts.

“…You did? How? Wait…that means that you probably have the force, that’s great news Finn!” Rey uttered, first in confusion, before turning to joy over the implication of what he just said.

“Rey, that’s not what I wanted to talk about. Or, I do, but not right now anyway. I’m just wondering how it is that I’m talking to you right now. If I’m right in feeling that you died, how am I talking to you right now?” he responded, not wanting her to avoid what he wanted to know.

“I…I got help from Ben in fighting Palpatine. But he got pushed down into some hole, I thought he was dead. I got overpowered by Palpatine, but I felt the old jedi talking to me, so I was able to stand up again, and used Luke and Leia’s sabers to deflect his lightning back on him. But after that…I collapsed, I had nothing left.” Rey explained to him, showing pain at recalling what happened.

“So, you did die. But how did you…how are you alive?” Finn asked, still not satisfied that she hadn’t told him how.

“Ben, he came back, he managed to get out of wherever he was, and somehow brought me back. I think he gave me his life force, because he died himself shortly after.” Rey told him, now looking down at the ground, sadness evident on her face.

“Oh. Wow, he did that? That’s…really good of him. I can’t say I forgive him for what he’s done, but I grateful that he did the right thing in the end, and saved you. I….” Finn said, before Rey interrupted him.

“I kissed him Finn. After he saved me, I kissed him.” She blurted out, not being able to keep it to herself.

“You what? You kissed Kylo Ren!?” Finns face looked like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. She had kissed the guy that had tormented her for a year, who had kidnapped her, tried to invade her mind, and who had nearly killed him for protecting Rey.

“Finn…” Rey only managed to say. She truly didn’t know how to explain it to him.

“Just please, tell me why. Tell me why you kissed that murderous warmongerer after all the pain he did to you, to me, and to everyone else here. Was it a “thank you for saving me” kind of deal, or was it more?” Finn said, anger in his voice, demanding an answer.

“I….I don’t know Finn. It just…happened. I know that it was wrong, I know that he has done awful things, awful things that can’t be forgiven. But as I opened my eyes to see him having saved me, I just did it. I don’t know what it means Finn.” Rey tried to explain, sensing Finns anger, and desperately trying to get the right words out.

“I need to think about this.” Finn said, walking backwards for a bit, pain evident in his eyes, before he turned around to run away.

“Finn! Wait!” Rey shouted after him, starting to move after him.

“Don’t follow me!” Finn shouted back.

Rey decided to listen to him, and let him run away.


	2. The Search for Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey returns to base from Tatooine, only to find out Finn isn't there.

A week had passed, and she hadn’t heard from him. She had left a few days after the final battle to go to Tatooine. She had finally been fully embraced a family, found a name she could carry, but she still wasn’t a peace. Things didn’t feel right after Finn had stormed off. When she returned back to the base, he wasn’t anywhere to be found. She was met by Poe, BB-8 and Zorii, but Finn was nowhere to be seen.

“Hey, welcome back! How did it go?” Poe asked, giving her a welcome back hug.

“Went well. Where’s Finn?” Rey responded, more concerned about where Finn was than about telling exactly what had happened.

“I don’t know. He’s been quite distant in the past week, hasn’t talked much or been around an awful lot.” Poe explained. “Did he see you off when you left?” 

“No, he didn’t.” Rey responded, showing the disappointment on her face. 

“Has anything happened between you two?” Poe asked, now worrying about his little group being torn apart.

“Kind of. I need to find him.” Rey said, walking past the welcoming trio.

“You do. Can’t have you two fighting, you hear me?” Poe shouted after her as she walked off. “What’s your take on this, Zorii?”

“I can’t say I know them well, but Finn must be pretty hurt to avoid her like that.” Zorii said, looking as Rey disappeared into the base.

“Yeah, something must have happened, this isn’t like him at all. He would go to hell and back for her, so him not being here when she returned and not seeing her off is just strange. He's usually the first one to show up when she lands.” Poe said, thinking out loud.

She decided to walk to his bunk first, to check if he had just hidden away in his room. Approaching the door, she knocked on it. Nothing. “Finn?” She asked, in case he wasn’t opening the door on purpose. Still no response. Luckily, she knew the code to his door, so she opened the door and looked inside. No sign of him. The place was neat, as per usual, bed was made and nothing was cluttered on the floor. But it looked like it hadn’t been inhabited for a few days, at the very least.

Worried, she stepped out of his room, closing the door behind her. Poe didn’t know, but maybe Rose had seen him. She and Finn had sorted out what happened on Crait and decided to be friends, but they got along alright, so it was possible that she knew. She didn’t personally get along with Rose all that well, she had felt like Rose had some animosity towards her, but talking with her was worth a shot. In the hangar area, she finally found Rose.

“Hi Rose, have you seen Finn?” Rey asked, approaching Rose as she was working on an X-Wing.

“No, I haven’t seen him recently.” Rose replied, still focusing on her work. “Thought he was with you?” 

“No, he wasn’t with me on the trip.”

“Oh. Okay. Why do you need to ask around though? Can’t you just find him with your powers or whatever?” Rose said, not really interested in trying to help find him.

“Oh, damn. You’re right. Thanks Rose!” Rey said, jogging away.

“Uh, you’re welcome, I guess.” Rose muttered to herself, before returning to her work.

Luckily, finding Finn wasn’t a problem for Rey once she remembered that she could find him through the force if she focused. She could sense him on the planet, he emanated a strong and positive signature that she had learned to recognize from anywhere. The only problem was knowing what to say. She knew he was hurt, hurt about the whole Kylo Ren deal, but he was gone now. He had meant a lot to her in a strange way, but Finn was who kept her grounded, the one who she knew she could trust no matter what. She couldn’t afford to lose him.

After an hour or so of walking, she finally felt him being close. She had arrived at the foot of a small mountain, still covered by jungle. Thankfully, it had a path up, so she wouldn’t have to climb. On her way up, she spotted what looked like a small cave, with some things in it. It looked like someone had been here, but Finn wasn’t there. Sensing him nearby, she walked out of the cave and continued walking to the top. Barely a minute later she made it there, and there she saw him. Finn, sitting quietly in a meditative pose. Trying not to scare him, she spoke up hesitantly.

“Hi, Finn.”


	3. Keep talking, please

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey finally talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of dialogue here, which hasn't been extensively edited by yours truly, so please excuse any errors that might occur.

Finn didn’t respond. He sat with his back turned to her, still in his meditative pose. 

“Finn, are you okay?” Rey asked tentatively. After a few seconds with no response, Finn finally spoke up.

“Rey, what are you doing here?” He said with a somewhat uninterested tone.

“I came looking for you. You weren’t there when I came back, and I wanted to see you.” Rey explained carefully.

“Rey, you know what I mean. Why are you here?” Finn said again, sounding frustrated.

“I’m here to talk with you, I uh…think we need to. I didn’t like how things ended up last time.” She explained to him.

“Okay. What do you want to say?” Finn said, uninterested in taking the word. More than anything, he wanted to hear Rey explain things.

“Okay…where to begin. First of all, I want to apologize for kissing Ben.” 

“Kylo Ren.” Finn interrupted.

“Ben, Kylo Ren. Whatever. Anyway..” Rey said.

“No, it’s not whatever.” Finn said, turning around and standing to his feet. “You’re trying to humanize a mass murderer, a guy who help blow up a whole solar system, who kidnapped you, nearly killed you, and nearly killed me. Leia might have wanted him to be her son again, but one good deed doesn’t make up for the millions of lives he destroyed, and it doesn’t humanize him to me.” Finn explained with irritation in his tone.

“Finn, he saved me! He helped me out when nobody else could, and he sacrificed himself so that I could keep living!” Rey said, pain evident in her eyes.

“It was the least he could do after all he did to you! He owed you as much after all the shit he did to you! He tortured your mind for nearly a year, Rey! I know as much, because when you woke up screaming in the night, I was the one who was there to help you!” Finn angrily explained, gesticulating with his arms.

“Finn…” Rey said, not sure what to even say.

“Don’t _‘Finn’_ me. You know that I’m right. You know that him dying was exactly what he deserved after all the misery he put the galaxy through.” Finn angrily continued.

“You’re right. He was awful, but I can’t just forget that he helped me in the end Finn.” Rey said, partially admitting that Finn was right about him.

“And you don’t need to forget that. But it still was the least he owed you. And yet you kissed him.” Finn said, still not really believing that had happened.

“Yes, I did.” Rey shortly said

“You have nothing else to say about that? You kissed a mass murderer, Rey.” Finn said, now slightly calmer in his voice, but still determined and irritated.

“I’m sorry Finn! I’m sorry I kissed him, I really shouldn’t have. I don’t know why it happened. It just _did_.” Rey said, desperation in her voice.

“Why did you do it, Rey?” Finn calmly asked her.

“I really don’t know, Finn. I collapsed after defeating Palpatine. And then the first thing I remember is seeing him holding me. I understood what he had done. You know I was dead. You felt it happen.” Rey said.

“Yes, I did.”

“When I saw him, for some reason my instinct was to lean forward and kiss him, to thank him somehow. I shouldn’t have done it like that, you’re right.” Rey finally admitted.

“No, you shouldn’t have. You didn’t owe him anything, let alone a kiss.” Finn said sourly.

“Y-y—you’re right, I shouldn’t have.” Rey stuttered slightly, before continuing. “I don’t know what I was thinking, Finn. If I could re-do it, I wouldn’t have. But I can’t do that. Is there any way you can forgive me for that?” 

“It’s not just about that, Rey. It was never just about the kiss.” Finn said, wanting Rey to realize herself.

“Then what is it?” Rey asked, not sure what Finn was referring to.

After drawing a long breath, Finn spoke up. “It’s about how you’ve been. How you’ve been ever since Crait.” 

“How I’ve been? What do you mean?” Rey said, still confused about the situation.

“Rey, ever since you got back, I have tried to be there for you. A lot of others have been trying to help you too, but I have tried so hard to help you out at every moment. Whenever you needed something, I got it for you. When he was ruining your day, I tried to talk to you, to calm you down again. But every time something got serious, you pushed me away. If we were in combat, you pushed me away to deal with it yourself. And it has become even more apparent recently, especially after you pushed me away on the death star, and then left without a trace, before confronting Palpatine on your own.” Finn explained to her, before drawing a long breath. 

“Do you realize how scared I was when I realized that you were fighting Kylo alone? Do you realize how scared I was when I realized that after getting saved by Leia against him, you then went to face Palpatine alone?” Finn then asked, trying to underline just how much he has worried about her.

“I didn’t want you to get hurt, Finn! It was a suicide mission. I knew that. But I couldn’t involve anyone else in it. I couldn’t let you follow me down there, no way.” Rey explained to him desperately, hoping to make him understand that her intentions were to keep him safe.

“Do you trust me, Rey?” Finn asked.

“What do you mean? Of course I trust you!” Rey confirmed, not understanding why he needed to ask that.

“Then why did keep pushing me away? You never even told me anything. You just went off and did things without ever telling me about them. The confrontation in the desert, on the death star, Exegol. That’s not some isolated cases, that’s a pattern. A pattern of you not telling me or anyone else what you were going to do so would could at least try to help you.” Finn explained further.

“I wanted to keep you safe Finn! That’s all I wanted. I wanted this conflict to end, and I knew that I needed to keep you away from him. When I pictured you going with me to confront him, the memory of seeing him cut your back replays in my head, time after time. You were the one that finally came back to me, after all that time alone. You didn’t need to, but you still did, and you saved me that day. I knew you wanted to confront him, for all the First Order had done to you, and what horrible things all the Stormtroopers had gone through. But I also knew that he was an extremely dangerous person, and that he would kill you if given the chance. I couldn’t risk that, and that’s why I had to keep you away from him.” Rey finally said, explaining in detail why she had kept Finn away from Kylo Ren.

“That wasn’t your decision to make, Rey. I wanted so bad to confront him about everything he did, to help you end it all. And instead what I get is being pushed away, time after time. And you never told me this. No attempt to explain it to me. You just did it, and expected me to understand. When I saw you on Crait, I was so relieved to see you. Happy you were alive, happy all he had managed to do was to bruise your face. I trusted you. But ever since then, you have been chipping away at my trust. I have tried so hard Rey, to just be there for you. But when I heard that you had not only saved his life, but kissed him, it was enough for me. It was clear that you didn’t trust me, and instead had put your trust in him.” Finn said coldly, explaining his desire to finally confront Kylo Ren.

“I’m so sorry, Finn. I shouldn’t have done that. But please, try to understand that I just wanted to keep you safe. I couldn’t tell you, because I knew you would follow me. I can’t thank you enough for always being there for me, but I couldn’t ever ask you to be there to confront him again after what happened last time. I couldn’t risk you getting killed, Finn.” Rey tried desperately to explain, tears appearing in her eyes.

“But again, you didn’t trust me. You stopped telling me things, you didn’t want to tell me what was bothering you, but it was obvious what it was. Instead you confided in the one tormenting your thoughts, the source of your troubles. And when it came time for the final confrontation, you put your trust in him. Not in your friends that had been there through thick and thin, not me, but him. And then you kissed him for finally helping you, when everyone else had helped you along the way.” Finn said, looking out over the surrounding forest. “That hurts, Rey. It hurts to feel like you’re always trying to help, but keeps getting pushed further and further away, both physically and mentally. Especially in favour of someone like that.” Finn continued, turning back again to face her.

“I’m so sorry, Finn. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean to push him away. I just wanted you safe. That’s all I ever wanted, I swear to you.” Rey said, her eyes now clearly wet with tears.

“I’m sure you didn’t Rey, but it’s what you did.” Finn calmly said in response. 

“It was, yes. I’m so sorry Finn. I got so wrapped up in trying to end the conflict, keeping everyone safe, and having him bother me every day, that I didn’t realize that I was pushing everyone away, you included. I’m so sorry about that, Finn. I want things to get back to how they were, I really do.” Rey repeated, trying to take blame for her actions.

“That might be, Rey. I think I need some time away to think. And I think you do too. He might have affected you badly mentally, but if so then you need to find yourself again. We both need that, I think.” Finn said to her, before starting to move past her. 

“Finn, wait!” Rey said. “Please don’t go. I really don’t know what I will do if you aren’t here. I already lost Han and then Leia. I don’t want to lose you too, you’re the only person left that I know that I can trust. If you go, then I’m just the scared child from Jakku again. Please, Finn.” Rey said, clearly crying.

“I’m sure you can talk with some of the others. Poe, Chewie or Rose for example. You don’t need me for that.” Finn said dismissively.

“Finn, Poe is your friend, not mine. He likes talking about his X-Wing and the Falcon, but that’s about it. Chewie needs some time to deal with Leia being gone. Rose seems to hate me, and I don’t even know why. There is nobody else, Finn.” Rey said, desperately hoping that he would stay. He was her safety net, and now she felt like she was free falling without anyone to catch her.

Finn turned around again to speak to her directly. “Oh, right. You don’t know why she doesn’t really talk to you unless she has to. You remember that she kissed me on Crait, right?” He then asked her.

“Yeah? I thought you talked with her about that after she woke up again?” Rey asked, not sure where he was going.

“I did. She really liked me. Probably still does, but I turned her down.” Finn continued.

“Yes, I remember that. You told her you didn’t feel the same way?” Rey said, asking as she wasn’t completely sure what he had said exactly.

“Right. But there is a reason I rejected her, a reason I wasn’t interested. I turned her down because of you, Rey.” Finn explained to her.

“What!?” Rey said, utterly confused about what he had just said.

“I’m in love with you Rey. Or I was at the time. I’m not really sure anymore. I’m not sure if I know you anymore, or if you really are the Rey that I fell in love with.” Finn said, sadness evident in his eyes.

“I…..I….I don’t know what to say, Finn.” Rey said, truly lost for words.

“Don’t say anything. I need to get away, to think, and finally let all this craziness settle for a bit. You should probably do the same. Goodbye, Rey.” Finn said before turning around and walking off, with Rey left standing still in stunned silence.


	4. The All-Seeing Eye of Dameron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo returns to base at different times, but can't escape reality.

She had seen him in the cavern on the way down, packing down some stuff with his back turned to her. She stopped. She wanted speak, but she couldn’t. She knew he wasn’t interested in speaking with her now. After a few seconds, she walked away, heading back towards the base. The walk gave her a chance to think. Think about all that had been said, and all that had been done that had led them to the situation they found themselves in. Truth be told, she found the walk too long. The conversation kept replaying in her head, hurting more every time.

When she finally returned, she went straight to her bunk. Not to sleep, or relax, but to pack. She had to leave, she told herself. She couldn’t stay there; she couldn’t risk seeing him around on base not interested in talking with her. If Finn wasn’t talking with her, she had no reason to stay there, nothing binding her to that spot. After throwing what little she owned in a bag, she headed out to the Falcon, with the sun now setting on the planet, hoping to be able to get there undetected. Unfortunately, the all-seeing eye of Dameron spotted her as she was approaching the area of the base where the ships was located.

“Rey, where are you going? What’s with all the stuff?” He asked her.

“Away. I cleaned out my bunk, someone else can have it.” Rey responded, hoping to end it at that and avoiding all eye contact.

“Did you talk to Finn?”

“Yes, we talked. Anyway, I really need to go. If you really need me you know how to contact the ship.” Rey said, trying to back away from the conversation.

“That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You’re leaving because of him.” Poe said, a clear sadness on his face.

“Poe…I really don’t want to talk about it. I’m sorry for leaving like this, but I need to get away for a bit, find out who I am in all this.” Rey said, now showing the tears in her eyes.

“Rey, I won’t try to stop you from leaving, but please don’t do anything stupid. And don’t give up on a good thing. You care about him a lot, and he cares about you. I know that, because you wouldn’t be sneaking off base if any other person here hurt you. He wouldn’t have done whatever it is he did if he didn’t care about you. And please take care of my baby.” Poe said, trying to remind Rey that it wasn’t necessarily over. 

“Poe, the Falcon isn’t yours, and I take better care of it than you.” Rey said with squinted eyes. “As for Finn, he doesn't want to talk with me right now, so I need to get away for a bit. Figure out some things.” 

“Fine, but just don’t give up Rey. And please stay in touch. I don’t know how long I can keep Chewie contained if he finds out you escaped with his ship without a word, so at least leave a message for him when you get to wherever it is you’re going.” Poe said, acting like the general he suddenly was.

“Okay, I’ll do that. But I’ll be going now. Take care, Poe. And don’t tell anyone at least until morning, please.” Rey said, backing onto the ramp of the Falcon.

“Okay, I won’t. Take care Rey.”

A few hours later, under the cover of complete darkness, Finn returned back to base and snuck back to his bunk. In there, he noticed that someone had been there. He had left it neatly folded, but the covers were pressed in, showing the mark of something had sat there very briefly. “She must have gone looking for me around base, huh.” He thought to himself, before going to the fresher to prepare for bed. 

Much like Rey, he thought he had been able to get to his bunk stealthily, but he had been spotted. Soon enough, word got back to General Poe. Finn lay awake under his covers as he heard a knock on his door. Trying to be quiet, he ignored it, hoping to at least be able to avoid people until morning. The knocking continued, but Finn didn’t move. If he was good at anything, then it was lying completely still without breathing loudly.

“Finn, I know you’re in there. Open the fucking door, or I’ll get someone to break it down!” Poe shouted, demanding to see Finn right away.

“Fine. Two seconds.” Finn groaned, before putting on some clothes quickly and opening the door.

“Finn, what the fuck? You disappear on us for days, and then Rey goes looking for you, and comes back crying. You’re a co-general, Finn. You can’t just disappear like that. And what the hell happened between you two?” Poe said, anger clear in his voice.

“I needed some time away. Knew you would send someone if I left a trace, so I didn’t. And I knew you wouldn’t let me if I asked.” Finn said.

“Finn, you can’t do that. You have responsibilities here, that I had to do all on my own without warning. I can look past it now, but don’t pull that crap again, okay?” Poe said, still annoyed at Finn.

“Okay, I won’t do that again. Sorry for disappearing. If it’s okay with you, I really want to sleep now. I’ll talk to you in the morning and apologize to everyone else then.” Finn said, trying to usher Poe out of the room.

“No. We’re talking now. What happened between you and Rey? I saw her with tears in her eyes, and the only one here to talk with her was you.” Poe said, determined to get Finn to talk.

“Is she still here?” Finn asked in return.

“No, she left. I know something has happened between you two. Spill it, Finn.” Poe continued, determined as ever.

“Okay. I’ll tell you what happened.” Finn then said, sitting down on his bunk.

Finn then proceeded to tell about the argument he had with Rey, and why it had happened, as he recalled it.

“Okay, that was a lot.” Poe said, drawing a breath. “You’re mad because she kept pushing you away from dangerous confrontations, for kissing that guy after she got revived, and for keeping things from you. Did I get that right?” Poe asked, wanting to confirm that his brief summary was accurate.

“Yes.” Finn confirmed.

“Okay. It sounds to me that you care about her a lot, and that she really cares about you. If it’s right what she said, that she wanted to keep you away from harm, then at least her motivations weren’t bad. She went about it the wrong way, but I think she was trying to do a good thing. Don’t forget that, okay? As for the Kylo Ren stuff, I don’t really agree with her insistence on approaching him and trying to turn him, but in the end, she was right, sort of. He did do the right thing. He did a bunch of awful stuff first, but he did do something useful at the very end. Kissing him was…weird, but people do weird things without thinking sometimes.” Poe said, trying to give his perspective on the matter.

“Yes, she might have thought she was doing the right thing, but she was pushing us all away, Poe. It doesn’t feel like she trusts me.” Finn said.

“Finn. You have to remember where she came from. What she came from. Trust doesn’t come easy when you live in a place like that. She still trusted you enough to grab your hand and drag you up from the sand moments after you tricked her. She trusted you enough to fight Kylo Ren for you. She was ready to die alongside you on Starkiller before Chewie appeared to get both of you away. And then, as soon as she had found someone to trust, she was alone again. Remember that she told you that Luke completely rejected her? That’s how and when Kylo Ren got involved, when she was alone, with nobody there for her. She got tricked by him, but didn’t join him. Instead she came to save our asses. But the only one she was interested in seeing was you. The rest of us might as well not have been here. I barely know these things, some of which you told me. She told you all this. And lots more. You are the one person she trusts, Finn.” Poe said, reminding Finn about all that had happened, trying to give him a perspective on things.

“I know that Poe. I know she’s been struggling with things ever since Crait.” Finn said.

“Like what?” Poe asked.

“Kylo Ren, he was intruding into her thoughts, bothering her often. She’s had a lot of nightmares too.” Finn said. 

“And that’s been going on ever since Crait?” Poe asked.

“Yes. I’ve tried to help, but she kept pushing me away, and then stopped talking to me about it.” Finn confirmed, looking down at the floor.

“Then it’s no wonder she’s been difficult. If she’s had that guy living in her head for months and months, then of course it impacts her. It’s not easy to talk about those things, but she at least told you some of it. I didn’t know anything at all. I know she was moody and not always concentrated, but she only really talked to you and Leia.” Poe said, like he had a great realization. 

“I guess. I just wish she didn’t push me away like that. I wanted to help, but eventually I just felt like I was a burden she couldn’t deal with, and that telling me when she was running off wasn’t important.” Finn said, frustrated. 

“Finn, you do that too.” Poe said.

“I do what?” Finn asked.

“Run off without saying anything. You wanted to run from this whole fight before Rose stopped you. You wanted to run away with Rey. And then, once she ran off to the Death Star, you wanted to run off to save her. And just the other day, you ran off without a word to anyone, because you were upset at her. You do the same thing as her sometimes, so you’re not innocent either.” Poe reminded him.

“Poe, you know I don’t like it when you bring stuff up against me.” Finn said, not enjoying what Poe just did.

“Someone needs to bring you down now and then, Big Deal.” Poe said, before continuing to make a bigger point. “I think I have heard enough though. When she left, I told her not to give up, and I’m telling you the same thing. Don’t give up on her. Let her get some time to sort things out, some time off without that maniac living in her head. Then talk to her. Be honest, but not as confrontational. Remember that she’s been through some shit, just like you have. I know you care about her; I have seen you do some absolutely crazy things to try to keep her safe. And she has done some crazy things to keep you safe Finn. You both care a lot about each other, so even though you’re upset, don’t forget that.”

“I won’t. Thanks for doing this Poe, I really needed that.” Finn said, with a slight smile.

“You did. I’ll let you sleep now. See you in the morning buddy.” Poe said, as he stood up and walked out, shutting the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say thank you for all the lovely feedback I have received so far. It means a lot to me, and it's really helping my motivation. :D


	5. Introspective

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn is distracted at base, while Rey is caught in her own mind.

“Poe, it’s been two weeks, and I still haven’t heard from her.” Finn sighed, sitting on a table.

“Give it time, Finn. And technically you have, she’s sent a few messages to us to confirm that she’s alive.” Poe replied, focusing on planning for how the Resistance’s forces would be spread out to root out the remaining First Order splinter groups out there before they could do anything substantial.

“I’ve already given it time, and she’s still not here. I don’t think she wants to come back.” Finn said, sounding disappointed.

“Do you want her to come back? Sure sounds like you want her back right now.” Poe asked, still not even looking over at Finn.

“What? No! I mean, yes. I want to sort things out, I don’t like the way things ended.” Finn said, suddenly turning defensive, before correcting himself.

“Then why are you here?” Poe asked him straight up, now turning to look him right in the face.

“What do you mean?” Finn asked, not sure where Poe was going with that.

“If you so desperately want to fix things with her, why are you still hanging around here?” Poe then clarified.

“I have a duty here, you know that Poe. You reprimanded me for not following that yourself.” Finn said, reminding him of their talk two weeks prior.

“I know what I said. I also know that you’re absolutely useless when your mind is somewhere completely different. Go fix things.” Poe uttered in complete exasperation, starting to get tired of Finns lack of focus after Rey left.

“Right now?” Finn asked incredulously. 

“Yes. Go on. Get!” Poe replied, trying to shoo him out of the room.

“What do I even say to her? And I don’t know where she is.” Finn said, stopping Poe from pushing him out.

“The truth. Start with saying that you’re sorry for being so harsh last time, that you want to fix things. And you can probably figure out where she is.”

“Shit. You’re right. I know where she is.”

Her past two experiences here hadn’t been all that great. There was a lot of bad memories here, but as places to hide away from society goes, it was a solid option. She had to give Master Luke that. There was something calming about the ocean breeze there, so radically different from the desert she had grown up in. And this time, she didn’t have anything intruding in her mind, or a will to go hide away from the world. She was here to get space. To think. 

She knew she had screwed up a lot in the past year. Things hadn’t been easy in the past year. Having to escape from the only world she knew, being kidnapped, seeing people she cared for die, and then having Kylo Ren in her head for months and months leading up to all that had happened weeks prior. Focusing on getting stronger had been difficult, when her waking hours had been spent both worrying about her friends being out on missions while she had to train and being bothered by images of the horrible things Kylo Ren wanted her to see. Sleep wasn’t much better, often being woken up interrupted both by nightmares and Kylo Ren. Eventually it had become difficult to even separate what was a nightmare and what he was actually showing her through the force bond. She had felt the bond becoming stronger somehow, despite resisting it.

The whole experience had left her difficult to deal with. Leia tried to the best of her ability to help, and was able to help a bit with the force. Finn tried to help with all the rest. For a while, she was really grateful for him trying to help. He was only trying to be there for her, after all. But sometimes she felt she needed space, and the worse the connection had gotten, the more she felt like pushing people away. 

She saw now what kind of impact that had on the people around her. She had pushed away the few people that always tried to look out for her, and opened up to the one causing her issues. She felt foolish for it now, especially now that the consequences had shown themselves. She had been here long enough already, and the villagers weren’t happy too see her anyway. They seemed to remember the ruined buildings, malformed rocks and blown up ship from the past two times she was there.

“Rey. Don’t beat yourself up over what has been said and done.” She suddenly heard a voice say.

“Leia?” She asked.

Leia appeared in front of her in the form of a force ghost.

“Rey, I know you feel bad right now, but it’ll get better soon. Don’t hide away though, it won’t solve anything.” Leia told her.

“She’s right, as always.” Rey heard another voice say, before Luke appeared alongside Leia. “Hiding here doesn’t fix anything, I should know.” 

“He doesn’t want to talk with me anymore. I really don’t know what to do…” Rey said, tears appearing in her eyes.

“He will talk with you. He won’t stay mad forever. He misses you, just like you miss him.” Leia reassuringly said. “Me and Han fought a lot at times, but in the end, we always missed each other. Life isn’t always straight forward. People screw up, and do things they regret later. I’m sure he regrets some things too. The important part is how we deal with those mistakes. Don’t give up on something worth fighting for, Rey. You’re not alone, not unless you want to be.” Leia said.

“I’m sorry that I was difficult to deal with, Leia. I truly didn’t mean to be.” Rey sincerely told her. Apologizing after death was better than nothing, she supposed.

“I know. We all deal with things sometimes, I’m glad I could help burden the load sometimes, even if you wouldn’t always let me. And there is nothing to forgive, you helped do both things I wanted you to, after all. Worry about your friends instead, they miss you Rey.” Leia said, before her and Luke disappeared again as if they were never there. 

Leia was right, she knew that. But facing reality was tough. How do you talk to someone who made clear that they didn’t want to? How do you fix things when apologies mean nothing? She had been pondering that for a week after Luke and Leia had appeared, not finding the answer. The only thing she knew is that she needed to be better. Be a better friend to everyone that had been there for her, and say sorry to those she had wronged. She missed him a lot, but until she knew exactly what to do, she couldn’t show her face. Her mind was replaying the same thoughts she had been plagued with ever since she left, when she heard a ship approaching. It was a smaller ship, one she didn’t recognize. But she could sense who it was. 

“Finn.” She said to herself, before jumping up from her meditation to run down the mountain.


	6. And We Will Never Be Alone Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey meet again, and have another talk to clear the air.

Rey was glad she had run the obstacle course at Ajan Kloss now, as it had given her the endurance to run down all the stairs of Ahch-To. There was no time to waste, she had to see him right away. She had no clue what to say, even after all that thinking, but that didn’t matter. As she finally saw the Falcon with the other ship landed safely beside it, she felt her breath waning. But then the ramp lowered, and Finn stepped out of the ship, looking around him before spotting Rey running towards him. Finn picked up the pace until they got close, when they both slowed down into a big crash of a hug.

After finally catching her breath again, Rey spoke the first words between them in two weeks. 

“You came.” She said, smiling while draped around him. Maybe it wasn’t too late, he hadn’t resisted the hug after all. 

“I did. I missed you Rey.” Finn said earnestly, holding her close.

“I missed you too Finn. I missed you so much.” Rey said, her feelings bubbling up again. And those stupid tears. She couldn’t believe how many tears she had shed in the last month. Thankfully these had some joy to them.

“I came to say that I’m sorry, Rey. I’m sorry I was so harsh on you, I shouldn’t have been.” Finn started.

“No, I needed to hear that. I can’t pretend it didn’t hurt, but I needed to hear it regardless.” Rey responded, pulling away from the safety of the hug.

“I shouldn’t have said it like that though, and I’m really sorry about that. All I wanted was for you to be safe. I don’t want to fight with you.” Finn repeated, trying to make sure she knew that he was saying it honestly and from the heart.

“Apology accepted. I don’t want to fight either. I was trying to do the same, trying to keep everyone safe, but I did it the wrong way. I swear to you that I won’t push you away, I will try my best to be there more for you. I’ve been way to hung up on me, my own issues and the war that I didn’t realize what I was doing to you and the rest. I will do my best to avoid that ever happening again. I can’t promise to be perfect, but I will do my best. And again, I’m so sorry for being like that to you.” Rey said, looking Finn right in the eyes.

“I don’t need you to be perfect. You being Rey is enough for me.” Finn said, and Rey hugged him closely again in response. “And apology accepted.” Finn then added.

They stood there for a little while, not speaking, just embraced and in peace. She felt safe again in his arms. 

“What have you been doing here, anyway?” Finn finally asked her.

“Thinking, mostly. You were right about that, I needed to figure some things out. I don’t think I have all the answers yet, but I do know that I want you to be part of my future.” Rey said, smiling shyly.

“Your future, huh. I haven’t really thought ahead at all. Been too busy living in the moment of all the craziness.” Finn said, thinking out loud.

“Then again, neither have I, until now. Things were always so difficult, feels like I haven’t slept for a year honestly.” Rey said. “What have you been doing?”

“Poe killed me after I returned, after that I tried helping him out, but I don’t think I have been all that useful really.” Finn said honestly.

“What makes you say that?” Rey asked him, hoping he wasn’t devaluing his importance again. They had that talk months ago, so she hoped she wouldn’t need to go over it again.

“Been distracted, had some things to figure out.” Finn said cryptically.

“Oh. Hope you found some good solutions?” Rey asked him.

“Needed some help, but I think so, yeah.” Finn said with a smile, which Rey returned. She has a beautiful smile, he thought to himself.

“How about I show you around the place? Unless you plan on returning right away?” Rey suggested to him.

“Sounds good. On one condition though.” Finn said, not revealing what the condition was.

“And that is?” Rey asked curiously, squinting her eyes a bit.

“That we crash in the Falcon after that, the talk of sleep reminded me how tired I am.” Finn said, yawning a bit into his hand.

Rey smiled again upon hearing that. “Deal. Now come on.” Rey said, waving him along with her with a smile on her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just want to say that this isn't the last chapter of the fic, despite it perhaps looking like it is. I also want to add that this isn't Finn "conceding" or magically forgiving everything, but accepting that he misses her and being more interested in sorting out things alongside her than without her. Sometimes you need space, but eventually you need to close the space again if you're ever going to fix things. :)
> 
> And again, thank you so much for all the nice comments!


	7. An Island of Memories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey spend the day on Ahch-To, with Rey giving him a tour of the place.

The remainder of the day had been surprisingly nice. They spent it walking around Ahch-To, with Rey showing Finn what’s what, and telling some stories from the past times she was there, even if they had some bad memories. She told him how the local villagers didn’t like her a lot after she ruined one of their huts, and liked her even less after she practiced with her saber on the rocks around the island. Blowing up a ship there probably didn’t help either, she told him, causing them both to laugh.

As much as he saw it was a place with bad memories for her, he could see the appeal in going there. If you wanted to disappear, it was the place to go. Not like any of the villagers would fly away to inform anyone you were there, after all. And it was a beautiful location, he couldn’t deny that. Sadly, the place was also what had probably started to make her more distant from him. She had told him of how the bond with Kylo had started there, and now he got to see where all that began. 

She also decided to show him the pit that she had jumped down the first time she was there. She told him not to go down there, but wanted him to know that it was there, in case he could sense something was off about the island. She explained to him how her vision there was the most confusing thing she had ever experienced, adding to her confusion about what to do after Luke had rejected her.

Not wanting him to think it was all bad there, she also showed him the old Jedi temple, and the remains of the tree where she had gotten the Jedi texts. She wasn’t sure how it had been burned down. The villagers had blamed her for it, but she refused to take any blame for it, to Finn’s amusement.

“She’s right, she didn’t burn it down. I did.” They suddenly heard a voice say, the ghost of Luke suddenly appearing in front of them.

“Master Luke, you did this?” Rey asked.

“Wait a second. Am I seeing this?” Finn asked, not really believing what he was seeing.

“It’s Master Luke, as a force ghost. I read about it in the texts, and it truly is him.” Rey explained.

“Sorry to spook you kid. So, you’re the Finn she kept worrying about when she was here the first time. Good to see that you’re alright.” Luke said, as if he was inspecting Finn.

“It’s okay, just didn’t know this was a thing. Though I guess I shouldn’t really be surprised about what life throws at me anymore.” Finn told him. “And thanks.”

“I did this after you left the first time, Rey. Not just you that get pyromaniacal when you’re angry apparently. Had given up on the Jedi stuff, and when you left, I knew you were walking into a trap. Glad you made it out though, there’s still hope for the Jedi to return and learn from past mistakes. Your friend here could make a good first student, if he’s up for it.” Luke explained to Rey.

“You think I could learn about the force?” Finn asked him.

“Well, you can see and hear me, which is an indicator that you have some talent.” Luke confirmed.

“We can start tomorrow if you want to? I can’t say I’ve taught anyone before, but I’ll give it my best.” Rey asked Finn.

“Sure, that sounds good.” Finn replied, eager to learn.

“We should get going though, it’s getting late. Don’t really want to walk back down to the Falcon in complete darkness. Was good talking to you, Master Luke.” Rey said, feeling like getting some sleep after all the walking around the island.

“Was good talking to you too, Rey. And nice meeting you, Finn.” Luke said, before vanishing.

“Nice meeting you too.” Finn said, though Luke had already disappeared.

As they were walking down to the Falcon, Finn couldn’t resist but comment on the man/ghost he had just met.

“This the same Luke you said rejected you so harshly? Seemed like a fairly nice guy.” Finn said.

“It’s the same guy, but he’s changed. I’m not sure exactly what happened, but it might have had something to do with the tree. He helped stall Kylo at Crait, as you saw, and after that he passed away. It seems that he found some peace after I left, and decided to help. He was the one that convinced me that my surname didn’t define me, and that I needed to confront Palpatine.” Rey explained, not realizing that she hadn’t even mentioned that she had learned what her surname by birth was.

“Your surname? What do you mean?” Finn asked, stopping his tracks.

“I’m a Palpatine, Finn. I realized inside the death star. I intended to go into exile here after the fight with Kylo Ren, but Luke talked me out of it. Told me that I was more than my surname, and that it didn’t define who I am.” Rey confessed to him, having stopped right below him.

“Oh wow. I’m so sorry to hear that, I can’t imagine how that must have felt like. Are you okay?” Finn said, pulling her in to his chest to hug her.

“I’m okay. It sucks, but it is what it is.” Rey said, having already processed it. She didn’t feel like she needed a hug, but was not opposed to a one either way. 

“Luke is right though, you are nothing like that evil man, and you never will be. You’re a good person, Rey, I have no doubt about that.” Finn told her.

“Thank you, Finn. I don’t want it to define me either. I got a new name though.” Rey said, pulling away from the hug so she could see him.

“Oh?” Finn uttered.

“After I buried the lightsabers, an old lady asked me who I was. I only said Rey at first, but then Luke and Leia appeared for me, and gave me a silent nod. So, I said Rey Skywalker. So that’s my name.” Rey told, with a smile.

“Rey Skywalker. Sounds good.” Finn said, before continuing. “Nice to finally be properly introduced, Miss Skywalker.” He then said, teasing her.

Rey only gave him a slight push and shook her head with a smile, before continuing to walk down towards the ship, with Finn following after looking after her with a smile on his face for a little second.

“You know, if you want to, you could probably take that name yourself. I’m sure they would be okay with it.” Rey said.

“No, no. I couldn’t do that. I didn’t know Luke or Leia that well, not as well as you anyway. If I can’t find out who my family was, I’ll figure something out. Or just use Finn.” Finn said, resisting the idea. 

“Just Finn works too. Doesn’t matter what your surname is. To me, you’ll always be Finn.” Rey said honestly.

“And to me, you’ll always be just Rey.” Finn told her in return.

And with that, they walked back down to the Falcon in silence. They chatted a bit more while lying in separate beds in the bunk area, before finally falling asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know a lot of you have liked the angst so far, but for now I'm moving over to more comfortable times. I hope you can enjoy that direction too, and please do continue to leave me comments, I really enjoy talking with you guys about your perspectives! :D


	8. Something Unresolved

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Back at Ajan Kloss, Poe is questioned about his leadership of the Resistance, and about Finns whereabouts.

At Ajan Kloss, things were largely normal. There had been no conflicts of note since Exegol, only a few minor First Order splinter groups that had been quickly shut down by force. Poe had been overseeing where troops were sent for a while, and Finn being gone hadn’t really impacted that. Finn was highly useful in terms of strategy, as he had a keen sense for where you could find an opening to hurt the opposition, but Poe handled the logistics for the most part. In the days Finn had been gone a few weeks back, and now after Finn was on leave, Poe had taken on the load himself without informing anyone other than the Resistance High Command. Between them, he and Finn had the authority to do that, and with Finn gone for the moment, Poe was currently in sole command of the Resistance.

A handful of people had noticed that Finn was gone, however. Some treated it with indifference, trusting Poe and not wanting to meddle in the reasoning behind Finn not currently being there, but others saw it differently, wanting more clear communication about why Finn was gone and where he was at. 

“Excuse me, Poe, do you have a moment?” Rose said, having entered the office he and Finn had taken over after Leia.

“Yes, what’s the matter Rose?” Poe replied, internally wanting to question her lack of use of his title, but deciding not to bother.

Rose took a deep breath, before she began speaking. “It’s about the leadership of the resistance. I know things have been trickier after Leia died, but you and Finn were designated as co-generals because you worked well together and had differing qualities. Yet recently I’ve only really seen you around. Few weeks ago, Finn was gone with no word, and now suddenly he’s nowhere to be seen again. I don’t feel like that’s a good way to lead the Resistance.” Rose opened up, airing her frustrations directly to Poe.

“You’re welcome to make suggestions about how I can lead better, but if you’re looking to change the leadership structure then you’re better off discussing this with the Resistance High Command, Rose.” Poe said, knowing that he wasn’t even slightly addressing what Rose wanted him to.

Rose sighed. “Poe, that’s not what I want. I’m wondering where the hell Finn is. You’re supposed to do this together, yet I only see one of you. Where is he?” Rose questioned Poe, with a demanding tone.

“Finn is off handling some personal matters. He will be back soon enough.” Poe replied shortly. “If that’s it, then I really need to go back to work.”

“Personal matters? Was it personal matters when he ran off two weeks ago too?” Rose continued to question Poe, not satisfied with how Poe was trying to get away from the questions.

“Finn didn’t have permission to leave the last time around, but this time was allowed to leave after consulting with me.” Poe again replied directly.

“And what are these personal matters?” Rose asked, not backing down at all.

“That’s none of your concern, Rose. That stays between me and him.” Poe said, definitely not interested in revealing Finns personal issues to anyone that didn’t need to know.

“It’s Rey, isn’t it? He was allowed to leave to go deal with her, like he always does. Every time she’s throwing a tantrum, he drops everything to go help her. How is that personal business, exactly? You’re treating it like he’s had a family emergency, yet it’s just him running off for yet Rey again.” Rose said, making her own deductions with a confrontational tone.

“Rose, she _is_ his family. It might not be by blood, and it might not be by marriage, but he would go to hell and back for her, and vice versa. I can’t refuse him to go ‘deal with her’, when that’s clearly a matter of utmost importance to him. Until he’s back, _I_ will deal with things.” Poe said, somewhat admitting that she was correct, but defending his decision with a determined tone. 

“And when will he be back?” Rose questioned him.

“I don’t know right now. I’m in contact with him, and I know where he is and that he’s fine. If he’s needed or is away too long, I will contact him.” Poe replied.

“I can’t believe this. This would never, ever be accepted by Leia.” Rose said with an exhasperated tone, drawing a comparison that Poe didn’t appreciate one bit.

“Again, if you have issues with my leadership, you should go take that up with the High Command. Now, I think this meeting has run its course. Leave, I need to get back to work. And you need to get back to work too. That’s an order.” Poe said, completely fed up with the questioning. Rose glared at him for a second, before giving him a silent nod and walking out of the room.

It wasn’t that having Finn there wouldn’t be useful, it would lessen his load quite a bit, but he felt like he could handle things fine alone given that they didn’t have any major conflicts going on. And having Finn distracted wasn’t very useful anyway, so it was best for him to get things cleared up with Rey. He knew from the transmission received late the day before that Finn was okay and that he had spoken with Rey, and that the two of them were getting along again now. He said he didn’t know exactly when he would be back, but that he would try to not take too long. And getting Rey back to the assistance was incredibly helpful for any fights they may have, so even if he was letting Finn do this mostly for him, potentially having Rey back was a big bonus. She could turn any tight conflict completely around with her abilities, it was like having an ace card to pull out if needed. 

Besides, Poe trusted Finn enough to know that he wouldn’t abandon them, and that having him do this was more important than having him around to strategize for fights they didn’t have right now. The current work was mostly sifting through intel and rumours about First Order presence on various planets, to figure out if they needed to send scouts there. They had done two minor attacks in the past two weeks, but that was it. 

Since then, there had been a few rumours, but nothing substantial enough to act on. It was mostly regarding sympathizers rather than people actually affiliated with the First Order, and while Poe didn’t understand or agree with the sympathizers, it wasn’t strictly illegal either. Outside of that, it was mostly making sure that the base was running well, and so far, so good. Morale was high after Exegol, so there hadn’t been any real trouble. People understood that they needed to be on stand-by in case something popped up, and were happy to do so. Because of this, Poe didn’t feel like the criticism from Rose was justified. Could he have informed everyone that Finn would be gone for a little? Sure, but he didn’t think it was necessary. It didn’t impact the day to day of anyone else than himself, and the info wasn’t needed for anyone outside of himself and the High Command. 

Rose certainly wasn’t high enough in the chain of command to be demanding knowledge of any of this, but he had reluctantly admitted to her suspicions about Finns true reason for being gone out of respect for her contributions during Crait and Exegol, and regarding finding weaknesses on the Star Destroyers. Her information had been really important to the Resistance, so he wanted to treat her with a little bit of respect, despite not liking how she had approached him about it. 

And as much as she seemed mad at him, it also seemed like she had a more personal quarrel with Finn and also Rey. He couldn’t really help with that, but he had an idea why it existed. He just hoped it wouldn’t cause any trouble down the line. And he certainly couldn’t let any personal issues she may have with the two of them impact his decision making.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to make clear that this isn't some attempt at trying to make Rose an antagonist, more an attempt to have her finally show her frustrations directly, and thereby opening up for some conflict. And this is more action than she got in the whole of tros, so there's that.


	9. Reach Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn starts his training under Rey's tutelage. Rey has some fun with it, but things eventually turn more personal between the two.

“Okay, so I haven’t really done this before, so you’ll have to bear with me here.” Rey said, not sure of herself as a teacher at all.

“That’s okay. We’ll figure it out together.” Finn replied, trying to encourage her. Rey smiled a bit at him saying that.

She had led him back up to the Jedi temple, where Luke had given her lessons when she first arrived on the island. She truly didn’t know how to be a teacher, because while Luke had taught her a bit, he hadn’t really been there for her properly when she needed it most. He had helped her out a bit after his death in trying to teach her some more, while Leia had done her part, but a lot of it had been studying old texts and teaching herself. Now suddenly she had to teach someone else, and that was a daunting prospect. At the very least, it was Finn and not some impressionable child she could ruin forever, she thought to herself.

“Right, so, you can sit down there. Sit down like you would if you were to meditate, with your legs crossed.” Rey explained, pointing to where she wanted him to sit.

“Like you sit sometimes?” Finn asked.

“Yeah, like that.” Rey confirmed.

Finn sat himself down like he remembered that Rey did from time to time when she meditated.

“Okay, now close your eyes.” She said, and Finn did as she said. “Now reach out, try to feel things around you.” 

Finn again did as he was told, but did the exact same mistake Rey had done. Seeing her chance, she decided to prank Finn like Luke had done to her. She pulled out a long piece of grass, and started to touch his outstretched hand with it.

“I feel something!” Finn exclaimed in joy, a smile on his face while his eyes remained closed.

Smack. Rey smacked his hand with the grass, causing him to open his eyes.

“What the fuck Rey, what was that for!?” Finn said in shock.

“What you felt was a piece of grass, Finn. You’re not supposed to reach out your hand. And apparently it’s not only me that fell for that.” Rey said, smiling at how she managed to trick him.

“Not only you?” Finn queried.

“Luke did that trick to me, and I fell for it. Kind of wanted to try it myself.” Rey explained to him. 

“Oh, okay.” Finn just said.

“Don’t beat yourself up about it Finn, it fooled me too. He probably did it to a bunch of his other students in the past. Now, close your eyes again. Reach out, with the force. Try to feel around you.” Rey said again.

Finn took a deep breath. “Okay.” He then said, before closing his eyes again.

“Do you feel anything?” Rey asked him.

“I don’t know. How am I supposed to do this?” Finn asked.

“You need to relax, remove everything else from your mind, and focus on what’s here and now.” Rey explained to him.  
“Right.” Finn muttered. He then sat down, and quietly focused. Rey remained silent to let him focus. “I think I feel something.” 

“What do you feel?” Rey asked him carefully, trying not to break his concentration.

“I feel something radiating near me, like a powerful hub of the force. A positive one, it doesn’t seem dangerous to me at all.” Finn said.

“I think you might be sensing me then.” Rey said. “Do you feel anything else? Reach out, further away than just right beside you.” 

“I….I feel the force all around the island. Light from the living creatures and the nature on the island, darkness from the pit you showed me.” Finn said, trying to convey what he felt.

“A balance.” Rey finished for him.

“Yeah, a balance.” Finn said, agreeing with her.

“Okay, so you can feel around you, that’s good. I want to talk to you about how long you’ve known though.” Rey said to him.

“Sure, what do you want to know?” Finn said, still sitting there with his eyes closed.

“You can open your eyes again for this part, Finn.” Rey said, laughing a bit.

“Oh, right.” Finn said, opening his eyes and seeing Rey sit across from him.

“You said you thought you had the force. We’ve established that you do have it, but when did you first start to sense it?” Rey asked him.

“I…I’m not sure exactly when I knew, but I’ve been able to sense certain things happening for a while. I felt something when Starkiller was fired, I felt sad, like I could feel all those people dying. After that, it was on Starkiller. I felt Kylo Ren, how dark he was, how much he hated me, you, everything. After that, I felt certain things now and then. Nothing major, but enough to make me believe that I had it. And when you confronted him in the desert of Pasaana, I didn’t know why you walked off there, but then I sensed him again. And then I…I sensed you die on Exegol. There is no reason why I would feel that if I didn’t have the force.” Finn explained, trying to remember the small moments he thought could have been the force.

“Okay, so it’s probably been there a while, just not harnessed. I don’t know exactly how powerful you are or can potentially be, but you feeling things so far away indicates that you are able to sense a lot if you focus enough. That’s good.” Rey explained, thinking through what he had said.

“Do you think that we could have both gotten it around the same time?” Finn asked her.

“It’s possible. If you felt it on Takodana, then it’s certainly a possibility, given that I felt the force through the lightsaber right before Starkiller fired. I wasn’t aware of it until then either.” Rey said, not able to completely confirm Finns suspicions, but not able to deny them either.

“Can you sense me though?” Finn asked her.

“I can. You’re bright, positive. Safe. I’ve felt that from you for a long while, but I wasn’t sure that meant you were force positive, I just assumed it was a reflection of how I felt about you. Everyone has the force in them, to some degree, so I truly didn’t know. I just knew that you didn’t have any bad in you at all. I feel you stronger now though, like you’re more aware of it yourself, not using it passively without knowing.” Rey confirmed, explaining what she felt from him in the force.

“How you felt about me?” Finn asked, curious if she could elaborate on that.

“I feel safe around you. Again, I know I haven’t always been open and honest enough with you, but I trust you, I feel safe around you, like I know it’s not in your nature to harm me. Most have something, deep down that if pushed hard enough, could make them do bad things. I probably do myself. But I don’t sense that from you.” 

“Thanks, Rey. It means a lot to hear you say that.” Finn said honestly, but he could not help but feel a bit disappointed, like he wanted to hear another answer. He knew she had some affection for him, but she was clearly reluctant to open up about it, and the situation with Kylo Ren clouded it, making Finn unsure of what he felt too. He tried to push that away and focus on their talk though. “I feel those same things about you, you know. You’re also bright, positive. Always looking to help people, to fix things that are broken. You may think that you have darkness in you, and some might have tried to lure that out of you, but you didn’t fall for it Rey.” Finn the went on to say.

“I did fall for it, Finn. The bond, getting me to leave Ahch-To in order to face Snoke and try to turn Kylo Ren, that was planted in me, and I fell for that bait. And when he wanted to get me to use the powers in my nature, I did. I shot lighting out of my fingers, Finn. I thought I killed Chewbacca. I’m not as good as you think.” Rey said, dismissing what Finn had just said, still disappointed in herself for falling for what she had fallen for.

“Rey. Do you remember what I told you on the ship at Pasaana?” Finn asked her.

“You said that you know me, and I got mad at you. I’m sorry that I did, but it’s true. I’m not as good as you think, Finn.” Rey repeated to him.

Finn took her hands in his, looked her in the eyes and then spoke. “You _are_ good, Rey. You didn’t fall to the dark, you fought even if it would cost you your life. You managed to get an evil man to do something good for the first time in who knows how long. You kept believing in doing the right thing. You don’t always believe in yourself, you have doubts, and that’s okay, but you are a good person Rey. I feel that from you in the force, and the Rey I have known since I met her on that wretched desert hell-hole has never shown me anything else.” 

Rey didn’t really know what to say in response, and felt her eyes tear up. She was tired of crying so much by now, but at least this time it wasn’t pain or suffering, but gratitude. Gratitude over Finn’s never-fading belief in her. She wasn’t sure what she had done to deserve that support, but she was thankful for it, more than she could say. After a bit, she finally muttered “Thank you Finn, thank you for saying that to me. I’ll try to live up to that.”

“You’re welcome Rey. I mean every single word of that, and don’t you ever forget it.” Finn said, not wanting her to keep doubting her own goodness. 

“I won’t, I promise.” Rey said. “But enough of this emotional stuff, this was supposed to be about you, not me. If you want to, I can show you something I learned from the books I stole from the temple here?” 

“Sure.” Finn said, happy to get back to learning more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tried to mix things up between shenanigans and serious talk here. I wanted to somewhat mirror what Rey experienced, while having her be more personal with Finn than Luke was with her.


	10. We Need To Go Back

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn is told to return to base, and tries to talk Rey into returning with him despite her initially confusing reluctance.

It had been a few days by now. Finn and Rey had gotten into a comfortable routine of waking up somewhat early, but not too early to go work on the force. It was a lot of trying and failing, seeing what did work and what didn’t work. Some methods were simply outdated, not able to catch the attention of any of them. And when a man trained in a strict military regime finds something boring, then it really had to be, Rey thought to herself. Neither of them had experienced much outside of their old lives and the past year of complete madness, so most new things were exciting. As it turns out, certain training exercises from the old Jedi books were not.

For the most part though, things were fun, light hearted. Finn was willing to try anything to learn, and Rey, not experienced in teaching, was willing to throw any odd exercise she could find at him. A part of him was beginning to understand now though, understanding why Rey had devoted herself so much to it, not only to learn to fight, but to guide her in life. She had explained how the force was the reason why she had let Kylo Ren live, why she kept thinking that he had a part to play in helping her. In the end, she had been right about that. And Finn thought about the crazy coincidences he had experienced in the past year, how he ran right into her, how by the pure chance of him wearing Poe’s jacket and Rey taking care of BB-8, she had run right to him to beat him up. It was funny how things worked, but Finn had started to believe in the force gradually over time, and now, seeing it in action, feeling it himself and feeling how strong Rey was, he was sold on it.

But as much as he wanted to stay, to practice with her and hide away on that island for ages, he had duties. He was the co-general of the resistance, after all, and it wasn’t fair on Poe to leave everything to him when they were supposed to share the burden. Finally getting some quiet time away, just having a good time while learning with Rey had been good, but he knew it was about time to leave. Apparently, Poe thought the same.

Walking out of his small transport ship, he found Rey sat down in front of a fire she had made outside of the Falcon. It had been a long day for them both, with some good progress made. He was starting to learn how to pick up rocks, and was gradually getting better at it. She had told him he would soon be able to pick up just about anything, but he doubted it would go that fast. Then again, seeing some of the stuff she had done, he knew it was possible to do some amazing stuff with it, even without being as strong as she was. He had gotten a message though, and had to let Rey know about it.

“Rey, I just got a message from Poe. He wants me back at base tomorrow.” Finn explained to her, sitting down by the fire alongside her.

“Do you have to go?” Rey asked, turning to look right at him. She was hoping he could stay for longer. She had really enjoyed their time together on Ahch-To, it was a much better experience than the last two times she had been there. She had gone there to hide away for a bit, but as it turns out, being there with company was way better. And it was nice to finally have someone to work on the force with. Leia had been a good tutor to her, but Leia wasn’t looking to use her skills herself. Finn however gave her someone to teach and learn alongside, it gave her a reason to keep looking to learn herself. Having a second person there made the sessions far more enjoyable too, and it certainly didn’t hurt that it was Finn with her. There was something safe and comfortable in having him around, which made her drop her guard completely.

“I do. I’m needed back at base; I have a responsibility there.” Finn confirmed.

“Oh, okay.” Rey muttered, looking away and into the fire, failing to hide the disappointment from both her voice and her face.

“What about you, got any plans?” Finn asked her.

“I….I haven’t really thought about it.” Rey said honestly. Her plans for what came after was a big unknown. She figured she would be there for a little while when she first went, but after Finn showed up, she had just taken it day by day, without ever thinking ahead. 

“If you want to, you could come back to base too?” Finn suggested to her.

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what people will think if I just show up again after running off from them without a word.” Rey confessed.

“Rey, you’ll be fine. You’re a hero to them, you’re a hero to me, to the whole Resistance. You can come and go as you wish, there’s no need to explain yourself if you don’t want to.” Finn told her, trying to give her a confidence boost. “And if you want to hide away, there’s a big jungle there waiting for you. And I’ll be there too, hoping to get some training when I have time off.”   
“Alright, alright. I’ll come.” Rey said, giving in to Finns wishes. 

“Great! I’ll leave tomorrow morning, I’m too tired to fly there right now.” Finn said enthusiastically. He was really glad he was able to talk Rey into coming back, not just for the selfish reason of wanting to learn more about the force with her, but also to have his friend there with him. He didn’t want her to be left back on Ahch-To alone again.

“Okay. I’ll have to go up to get some of my stuff, but I’ll leave tomorrow morning too.” Rey said, suddenly not very talkative, which Finn noticed. He could sense that she was nervous about going back, but he decided to leave it alone instead of pushing her about it.

“Alright. Want to go to bed?” Finn suggested.

“Sure.” Rey said in agreement.

The two of them had gotten used to sleeping in the same room by now. Finn had been used to sleep among other people in the First Order, but for Rey it had been a new challenge. She had been attempted bunked with a female pilot after Crait, but hadn’t liked it and soon got a smaller room she could have for herself. Meanwhile, Finn had shared a bunk with Poe ever since Crait. She was okay with sharing a small bunk with Finn on the Falcon however, with the two of them talking together from across the tiny room in their own beds, before falling asleep. This time however, there wasn’t any talking, and she was lying with her back towards him. If he wasn’t sure about something troubling her earlier, he was now.

“Rey, are you okay?” He finally asked.

“Yeah, why?” Rey responded, turning around to face him.

“You’re quiet. You’ve been quiet ever since I said I was going back.” Finn said.

“It’s just….I have a bad feeling, like if I go there, something bad will happen. And I don’t want that, I’ve been happy the past few days with you, it just sucks that we can’t continue like that.” Rey confessed.

“I’m sorry Rey, but I have to go back. I need to go help Poe, it’s not fair to him that I stay here for long.” Finn said, not really catching what Rey had said about her bad feeling.

“I know, but it’s not that. I just know there’s a fight coming. I don’t know with who, or about what, but I have a bad feeling about going there.” Rey confessed to him.

“It’ll be okay, Rey.” Finn said, hoping to comfort her.

“How do you know that?” She asked, not sold on what he just said.

“Because I’ll be there with you. You’re not alone, Rey. If something happens, I’ll be there with you. And if someone wants to fight you, they’ll have to go through me first.” Finn said, looking her right in the eyes.

“Finn…you don’t need to do that.” Rey said, not wanting him to go out of his way to defend her.

“You don’t need to ask; I’m doing it anyway. It’ll all be okay.” Finn said, reassuring her that he was serious about what he was saying.

“Thank you, Finn, that’s very nice of you.” Rey said honestly. She really did find it nice of him to say, but she wasn’t naïve enough to not think that it could end up being false. They had just fixed things a few days ago, and there were certain things they just hadn’t talked about, wanting to avoid it. It had been a comfortable peace between the two, but it could all come crumbling down, especially if the fight ended up being between the two of them. He couldn’t stick up for her if the fight was between her and him, after all. She just hoped it wasn’t, or that she was completely wrong about a fight being bound to happen if she went to Ajan Kloss.

“I’ll try to get some sleep now. Good night Rey, sleep well.” Finn said shortly after.

“You too Finn, good night.” Rey responded.


	11. Back To Work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn returns to his duties, and has some catching up to do. This leaves Rey wondering what to do, and missing the days on Ahch-To together.

The first few days back at base had been good. He had arrived back the day after Poe requested him, and was met by the man himself at the landing strip. It was a good reunion, Poe was clearly happy to see him, and Finn was glad to see him too. He explained that he hadn’t been asked back because it was urgent, but that it was important that he be there to help out. Finn naturally didn’t object, and apologized for taking so long, which Poe wasn’t having. As Poe saw it, he was owed a whole bunch of time off after a life of service, but he couldn’t take it all at once, especially until they were certain that the First Order was wiped out completely.

A few hours later, Rey arrived at base. He figured she had taken longer to pack up her things at Ahch-To, but didn’t ask about it. Rey seemed more hesitant to be back. She was glad to see Poe, Chewbacca and BB-8, but hadn’t show much interest in hanging around to chat, and retreated to the bunk room Leia had assigned her months ago. She asked Poe if it was still available, as she had cleared it out completely, but he confirmed that it was still available. He told Finn afterwards that he always expected Rey to come back eventually, and as a matter of respect for all she had done for the resistance, she would always have a place in the resistance no matter when she came or left. 

After that, things had kind of reverted to normal. Finn, feeling like he had some catching up to do, had devoted himself to his work. Nothing major had happened since he was away, but he felt it was his duty to go through the paperwork for the last few days to double check them and to catch up on what had happened without requiring a big brief just for him. That meant that he hadn’t really had time for working on the force with Rey, or seeing her or anyone else in general.

He couldn’t help but feel a little bad about that. He had talked Rey into coming back with him so they could continue training, but he had barely seen her since returning. And when she did, she seemed distant, like what she had said the night before leaving at Ahch-To was still bothering her. Nothing had happened yet, so he hoped that would be the end of it. 

Still, he hadn’t really talked to her in three days, so as soon as his work ended that day, he went off to talk with her. He walked to her bunk first, to check if she was in there. 

“Rey, are you in there?” He said, right after knocking on her door.

“Yeah, you can come in.” He heard Rey respond through the door, before it opened up by itself. He knew she had used the force to press the door opener, as she was still seated as the door opened before him.

“Hi!” He simply said, as he walked in with a smile on his face.

“Hi!” Rey responded in turn, smiling back while looking up from a worn old book. “What brings you here?”

Finn walked over to the bunk bed across from the one Rey was sat in, and sat down to sit across from her. “I wanted to see you. I haven’t seen you a lot since we got back, so I just walked to talk with you.” 

“Oh, okay. What did you want to talk about?” Rey asked him, putting down her book to give him her full attention.

Finn drew a deep breath, and spoke. “First of all, I wanted to say sorry for dragging you with me her when I was going to be so absorbed with work. I should have told you that I most likely would need to do a lot of work for a few days to catch up.” 

“No, that’s okay. You have your duties, I understand that.” Rey responded, completely understanding that he had things he had to do.

“I should have told you though, I shouldn’t have pushed you to leave right away when I couldn’t really be with you for a few days. So, I’m sorry about that.” Finn reiterated.

“I don’t think you need to apologize for it, but thanks anyway, it’s nice of you.” Rey said, accepting his apology with a slight smile.

“Also, I wanted to say that I’ve gotten through all the stuff I need to from the past few days now, so I should have less work in the coming days. I should be able to join you for some practice, if you want to?” Finn told her, broaching the question hesitantly. He didn’t want to assume that she would go train anytime he wanted, after all.

“That’s great! I’d love to. Just let me know when you’re done tomorrow, and we can get back to it.” Rey responded enthusiastically.

Seeing her so positive about it made Finn happy. He had missed her when he had been wrapped up with work, he wanted to hang out with her, train and have a good time. Seeing that she seemed to feel the same way meant a lot to him. “I will. Anyway, what have you been up to? I haven’t really seen you around much.” 

“I’ve mostly been in here, reading. Went out for a run yesterday, but that’s about it. Didn’t really feel like heading out.” Rey responded.

Finn knew it was something she wasn’t telling him. It felt like she was avoiding someone, but he didn’t really want to ask either. She had hinted to something bothering her, but she would tell him if it needed to be said. And it clearly wasn’t him she was avoiding, so there was that. “No fixes on the Falcon to be done?” 

“Chewie has been checking things, but I got some things fixed while I was away. Wasn’t too bad anyway, Dameron hasn’t flown it for a while.” Rey said, not resisting a shot at how Poe seemed be able to damage something every time he flew it.

Finn chuckled at hearing that. “Hah, alright.”

“What about you, anything interesting in the papers?” Rey asked him in return.

“Not much really, but I found one thing that could be interesting. We might have found some info about where the First Order have sent the kids they kidnapped in recent years for training. I know they changed facility a few years back from the one I was at, so I didn’t know myself. We might have a lead on it now though, so I want to look closer into that.” Finn explained to her, showing how passionate he was about that issue.

“That’s great Finn! If you find out where it is and want to go there, please tell me, and I’ll gladly come with you.” Rey said, offering her help.

“No no, you don’t need to do that. I’ll look into it though; I want to help those kids if I can.” Finn said, slightly dismissing her offer of help.

“I’m serious Finn, if you need me, I’m here for you.” Rey reiterated to him, looking him right in the eyes.

Finn smiled slightly at that. “Okay, I’ll keep it in mind. I should get going though, see you tomorrow?” He said, standing up to walk out.

“See you then.” Rey simply responded, and Finn gave her a smile in return before he walked out, closing the door behind him.

Rey sat there in silence for a little bit after Finn walked out, simply thinking. She was glad he had stopped by to talk with her, and that they would be resuming their training the following day. It had been a lot of fun training with him, and doing it made her realize how much she truly did enjoy spending time with him. Even mundane tasks got interesting when the two of them could do it together. They weren’t always productive, but it was always a good time. 

During their time together, she couldn’t help but think about one of the last things he had said in their fight, that he loved her, or that he had at one point. A part of her wondered if he still did, if there was anything there. After he came by talk, those thoughts came back again. She wasn’t really looking for it, looking for love that is, but it didn’t seem to bad either. A part of her quest after Exegol had been to try to find herself, and while she wasn’t sure if she had, she was sure now that she felt better when Finn was around.

Feeling in a better mood after their talk, Rey decided to go take a walk to go check up on the Falcon. She knew Chewie had looked at it, but she wanted to check it herself while there was still some daylight left. As she walked up the ramp, she heard a voice speak up to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally having something happen next episode!


	12. Pent-Up Frustration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey is confronted right outside of the Falcon, and has to fight with herself to keep her cool.

“So, you’re running off in the cover of darkness again, huh?” Rey heard someone say to her. Rey turned around, and saw who it was. 

“Hi Rose, nice to see you too.” She bit back, sensing Rose’s less than complimentary tone.

“Didn’t answer my question, so I’ll take that as a yes.” Rose concluded, not bothering to say hi in return. This wasn’t like Rose at all, while she hadn’t exactly been friendly with Rey, she at least had good manners. Rey knew that this wasn’t going to be pretty at all.

“No, I’m not running off. I’m checking to see if everything is okay with it. It’s an old ship, needs lots of maintenance.” Rey responded to her, trying to kill the confrontation right then and there.

Rose huffed, and then responded. “Nobody sees you for days after you get back, and when you finally show your face, it’s right before nightfall to ‘check on your ship’. Yeah right. We all know you run off at first sign of trouble.” Rose told her in a scathing tone.

“Excuse me?” Rey only responded to her.

“You heard what I said. You run off without telling anyone all the time.” Rose repeated.

“I can come and leave as I damn well please, Rose. Ask Poe or Finn, they can confirm that.” Rey told her in return.

“Yet you’re around when things are comfortable and good, but if you feel like things aren’t good, then you run off to go hide, leaving Finn to go fetch you time after time. Don’t you realize what you’re doing?” Rose said, finally bringing up Finn. 

Rey figured that it was Finn that Rose was mad about, not specifically her leaving. “So that’s what this is about, huh. You are mad about Finn.”

“You have him running off after you, constantly stringing him along with you, while you went off to chase after Kylo Ren or to hide away from the world.” Rose said with a bitter tone, her face showing her anger towards Rey.

Rey could feel herself getting agitated over what Rose was saying, but decided to respond regardless. “I have not been stringing him along. What he chooses to do is up to him, Rose. I don’t control him, nor do you. I haven’t asked him to follow me anywhere. And for the last time, I’m not leaving. Why the hell would I leave without any of my things?” 

“But you never tell him not to either. You never tell him anything, you just leave, with him scared for you and following you to make sure you’re safe.” Rose continued, not backing down at all.

“I have never, ever wanted to put him in danger. I tried to keep him out of harm, I kept him away from Kylo Ren, and I tried to keep him from following me into danger by not telling him, because I knew he would, no matter how much I told him. I can’t control him, Rose.” Rey tried to explain, flashes of her pushing him away reappearing in her mind. Finn had gotten so mad at her because of her doing that, yet pushing him away seemed to be what Rose wanted her to do.

“You know why he’s always following you, right?” Rose questioned.

“I have an idea, yes.” Rey replied.

“And yet you haven’t done anything about it. No ‘Sorry Finn, I just don’t feel the same way’, or ‘Sorry Finn, but I’m actually in love with a psychopathic murderer’, you just keep him around on the hook like a selfish bitch.” Rose said, really going in to hurt this time.

Rey could feel herself getting angrier. She had a temper, she knew that, and a few others did, but Rose was really pushing it by now. After closing her eyes and taking a deep breath to calm herself, she finally spoke in return. “Rose, I suggest you leave me alone, right now.” 

Egging her on, Rose continued to push. “Or what? You’ll shoot lightning at me?”

“Rose, I know you are mad at me because Finn turned you down, but don’t do something you’ll regret.” Rey said calmly, trying not to be phased by the insult, not wanting this to escalate further.

“You’re just having him on the hook, Rey! If you don’t feel the same way, then just let him loose, it’s not fair to him to have him chasing you like that when you’re just busy chasing someone else, especially when it might get him killed.” Rose said, now showing frustration.

“I am not keeping him on the hook, and I didn’t chase after Kylo Ren for that reason. I pushed Finn away, Rose. Like you crashed into him on Crait to keep him safe, I pushed him away to keep him safe. I literally did push him away on Endor, so he wouldn’t end up confronting Kylo Ren without a weapon to defend himself. And as for my feelings, I haven’t had time to deal with that, before now.” Rey said, not revealing directly what she felt, but trying to dispel what Rose was accusing her of.

“Well then you clearly haven’t done a great job of it, as he kept getting into danger because of you. He took a lightsaber to the back for you, wanted to run away from the resistance for you, and he followed you everywhere you went to find Kylo Ren. You don’t know how it feels to have someone you love and care about die, Rey. I don’t want Finn to end up like that because of you.” Rose said, continuing to push.

“Rose, I am so sorry that your sister died. I don’t know what it feels like to lose a sister, but you are wrong that I haven’t seen people I love and care about die. I saw Han Solo die in front of my eyes, killed trying to save his son from himself. Leia died, trying to safe her son and to protect me. Don’t you think that sucked for me? Han, who offered me, a random scavenger, a job on his ship, who willingly flew to Starkiller Base with Finn to save me and help blow it up. Me, Finn and Chewie saw him die. Leia, who helped me out so much and always tried to support me, died because I wasn’t good enough to get the job done myself. I know how it feels to lose people, Rose. You can accuse me of a lot of things, but that isn’t one of them. And me not caring about Finns safety isn’t one of them either.” Rey explained to her in detail, wanting to show just how wide of the mark that accusation had been.

“Rey, I am sorry I said that, but I still don’t like what you’re doing to Finn. You need to let him go.” Rose said in response, offering a slight apology.

“I think _you_ need to let him go. I am sorry things didn’t work out between you two like you wanted it to, but you can’t keep blaming that on me. He makes his own decisions, and it’s not up to me or you to decide for him.” Rey said.

“Excuse me? He loves you, Rey. You know he does, and yet you don’t do anything about it. It’s your fault that he’s still on the hook for you.” Rose responded.

“I know he does, he told me as much. But that doesn’t change anything. Do you think he will just magically fall in love with you?” Rey said in return, tired of hearing about this.

“He told you? And yet you still are keeping him around. I can’t fucking believe you, Rey.” Rose said, exasperated after hearing what Rey just said. 

“It’s not that easy, Rose.” Rey simply said in response, not wanting to tell her about the argument they just had before he said that.

“Oh fuck off Rey.” Rose said in anger in return.

“Fine, I will. I’m going to go check on the ship now.” Rey said, turning around to go walk up the ramp again.

“No, we are dealing with this, right now.” Rose said, demanding she came back.

Unbeknownst to the pair, the fight hadn’t gone unnoticed to the rest of the base. While people stayed clear of the situation, someone had gone to the command centre to go tell Finn.

“Rey, Rose. Stop this, please.” Finn said, running in and stopping right between the pair.

“No, Finn. I’m not stopping until she admits that she’s just keeping you around on the hook.” Rose said, not even looking at him, instead staring down Rey with a look of anger.

“I haven’t done that; I swear to you Rose. I don’t want to fight you, so just please let it go.” Rey said in return, tired of this whole situation. She felt a bit calmer, but she was tired. 

“Both of you, stop. I will not have you two fight over me like I’m some sort of prize to be claimed.”

“Finn, don’t you see what she’s doing to you?” Rose said directly to him.

“Rose, what happens between me and Rey stays that way. I can deal with that myself, it’s none of your concern.” Finn said, seeing what the problem was here. Right as he said that, Poe came walking over with Zorii. The two of them placed themselves either side of Rose, and started to walk her away from the situation, leaving Finn standing there, while Rey walked off without a word to her bunk. She was too upset after that whole ordeal to do any work regardless.

Finn meanwhile was perplexed. They had been fighting over him, for some reason. He didn’t know how it had begun, but he didn’t see why he was worth fighting over like that. He was his own man, who made his own decisions at the end of the day. It was flattering in a sense, but also really irritating. He would have to talk to both of them to figure out what it was about. After sitting for himself for a bit on the ramp of the Falcon, Poe came over to him.

“We just followed Rose to her room. She’s still quite angry at Rey. You talked to Rey yet?” Poe said, standing in front of him with his arms crossed.

“No, not yet.” Finn responded.

“I think you should. You’ve got a bit of a mess to clear up buddy, best get started. I’ll close the ship for you, just get going.” 

“Thanks Poe, think that could have gotten way worse if you didn’t get Rose away from there.” Finn said, as he stood up.

“No problem, that’s what friends are for.” Poe said, trying to make sure that Finn knew that it wasn’t a burden for him to help out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, the voice wasn't Palpatine, nor a Jedi. The original draft had the voice specifically listed as female, but I left that out to get some intrigue. Guess it worked, lol.
> 
> I just want to say that I don't think Rose is a bad person, and while this isn't a good moment for her, where she lashes out and says some bad things, she still isn't a horrible person. It's a bad moment after keeping all of her frustrations pent-up for a long time, finally unleashing them in a big firestorm.


	13. A Door Closes, While Another Cracks Open

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn goes to talk with Rey and Rose separately, hoping to figure out what had happened, and hopefully fix things.

Finn walked off to find Rey after that. He could sense that she was still at the base, in her room, as he expected. At least she didn’t do like he did and walk an hour away, he mused to himself. Luckily, the walk to her room wasn’t far, but it was long enough to give him a chance to think about what he should say. He knew he had to find out what had happened, he had an idea of what they had talked about, but no idea why it had blown up like it did, with Rose looking like she wanted to murder Rey. Probably for the best that she didn’t try to, wouldn’t have ended well for her, he thought to himself.  
But still, he didn’t know who started what, or how to solve it, but it did look like Rose was the aggressor in it all. He would soon find out, he thought to himself just as he reached Rey’s door.

He knocked on it, knowing she was there, but wanting permission to enter before he did. “Rey, can I come in?”

“Yeah, come in.” He heard weakly from inside. The door opened for him, Rey yet again not bothering to stand up to open it, instead using the force.

“Hey, are you okay?” He said as he walked in. She was tucked in under her duvet, not really looking in his direction.

“No.” He heard a muffled voice say, her head covered by the duvet. At least she’s honest about it, he thought to himself. She liked keeping her emotions to herself normally, so it was nice that she told him straight up this time.

“Can you sit up for me? It’s hard to talk to you with your face covered like that.” He asked her. He heard a sigh, but then she pulled the duvet off herself and sat up. It was clear that she been crying, her face was wet, and the brown eyes he liked so much were too.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Finn then asked her. 

“Not really.” Was the response he got in return, with Rey clearly hesitant about it all.

“I just want to understand what happened. Could you try to explain it for me, please?” Finn then asked, not wanting to pressure her, but still needing to know.

Rey was silent for a few seconds, clearly thinking about what to say next. “Okay.” She finally said.

“Start from the beginning, if you can. How did it start?” Finn said as he sat down beside her on the bed, wanting to hear the whole thing.

“Okay, it started a bit after we talked. I decided to go check on the Falcon, since I hadn’t really been out of the room for a few days. When I got there, I opened the ramp, and as I was walking into the ship, I heard Rose asking if I was ‘running off in the cover of darkness again’ with a sour tone.” Rey began explaining, trying to give her recollection of it all to Finn. Finn remained silent through the whole thing while holding her close in a hug, just listening to her talk, trying to get an idea of how it had all happened. He knew he needed to talk to Rose to hear her side, but he didn’t think Rey would lie to him either. She hadn’t always told him everything, but she wasn’t a liar. When she finally said “And that’s when you appeared.”, Finn spoke decided he could speak.

“Okay, wow. I am so sorry she did that.” He told her, genuinely feeling bad that she had to hear all of that. She hadn’t been a saint, but she didn’t deserve to be crucified either.

“Finn, you don’t need to apologize, it’s not your fault.” Rey said in return.

“But it is. I should have talked to her earlier. I knew she didn’t really like you, and I figured that was why, but I didn’t know it was this bad. She went too far, and I should have talked to her earlier to prevent that.” Finn told her, feeling bad about it all.

“Finn, really. It’s not your fault.” Rey reiterated. She didn’t want him to beat himself up over Rose venting her frustrations in the wrong way, it really wasn’t on him.

“Maybe not, but I still feel bad about it. What she said, that was…cold, not like her at all. Bringing up the lightning stuff for example, I know how horrible you felt after that, you weren’t yourself for a while after that. Bringing that up again to attack you is just awful of her.” Finn said. He really couldn’t believe that Rose had said something like that. She had to have kept this in for a long while to be able to say something like that. Poe always told him that keeping in feelings for a long time never leads to anything good, and this was a prime example of it.

“I….I can’t pretend that didn’t suck, hearing that back. It really did hurt. I know she was trying to get me to do something bad, to lash out back at her, but I tried my best to just keep my cool, not do something I would regret. I just hope that isn’t how people view me.” Rey said honestly. She looked hurt, it showed all over her face, but he was proud that she hadn’t lashed out.

“View you like what?” Finn asked, not sure what part Rey was specifically referring to.

“Like a ‘selfish bitch’, like someone who only looks out for herself with no care for others. I have never, ever tried to be that way. All I ever wanted was to keep people safe, and to end the conflict for good, no matter what I had to do. I just don’t hope people view me like that.” Rey replied.

“People don’t look at you like that Rey. And if any of them do, they’re wrong. You haven’t been perfect, but nobody is, and it’s not fair to expect anyone to be that. I know you never had bad intentions, so don’t worry about what Rose said while she was angry. People say bad things they regret later when they’re angry, and Rose is no exception to that.” Finn said, hoping to make her feel better. He truly didn’t view her as that, despite their disagreement a few weeks back. Her methods had been wrong, but she wasn’t selfish, no selfish person would put themselves through so much pain for the greater good. 

“Thank you, Finn, that means a lot.” Rey said, a sad smile appearing on her face.

“And thank you for that, for doing the right thing. I will try to talk to her, hopefully we can fix things.” Finn said, standing up again to go talk to Rose. As he was exiting the room, Rey spoke again. 

“Finn?” She asked tentatively.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For just…being here, listening to me, holding me. It means a lot, really.” She told him honestly.

“Always, Rey. If you ever need anything, I’m here for you, you know that.” Finn told her, making sure she knew.

This brought a small smile on Rey’s face. “Thank you.” She simply said again, allowing Finn to walk off. She wanted to say more, but knew this wasn’t the time for it. She couldn’t believe her luck though. She expected him to be mad, it would be reasonable to be a bit mad after being part of a fight with a friend of his, but he didn’t even show a hint of anger. He really was too good sometimes.

Finn felt like things had gone well with Rey. He got the impression that she had been completely honest with him, telling him like it had happened. She was understandably hurt by it, but seemed to be okay, all things considered. Hopefully she would be. He would go see her again later, he just needed to go talk to Rose, to get her side of things before he drew any conclusions.

“Rose, can we talk?” He said, as he knocked on her door. Unlike with Rey, he didn’t know the passcode to open the door, so he had not other option than to hope that she was willing.

Without a word spoken, the door opened for him. Rose had walked to the door in silence and pressed the door opener. 

“Are you okay?” He opened with, trying to test the waters.

“No, I’m not okay.” Rose responded, matter-of-factly. 

“Want to talk about what happened?” Finn continued.

“Yes, I do.” Rose admitted. “I’m not okay, because despite me sacrificing myself to save your ass, all you’ve ever done is chase after the girl that you sacrificed yourself for to no avail, not even giving me a chance.”

“Rose, that happened months ago. Have you kept this bottled up ever since then?” Finn asked her, not really responding to her comparison.

“Probably. I get it, you’re in love with someone else, but it just fucking sucks when you’re just going after someone that is too busy chasing her own gain to care about you, meanwhile I’m trying to be there for you, but you don’t mind me.” Rose explained to him.

Finn could see why she was hurt. It was similar to how it had hurt him that Rey kept chasing after Kylo Ren, but he didn’t think Rey was in love with Kylo Ren. Rose is clearly in love with him however, and it hasn’t stopped. “Look, Rose. What happens between me and Rey is between me and her. You can be mad at me all you want, but don’t lash out at her because of me. It’s not fair to her, when she hasn’t tried to hurt you, ever. I probably hurt you, maybe I should have said things differently, but let that be my mistake, not Rey’s mistake.” Finn told her, wanting her to leave Rey out of it all.

“But can’t you see it, Finn? Even now, after everything is over, she just ran off and didn’t come back until you dragged her back. And she was probably going to leave again.” Rose said, still not believing what Rey told her earlier.

“She wasn’t leaving. She was a bit down because I haven’t had time to train with her. We talked earlier, and I guess she was in a better mood, so she decided to go check the Falcon.” Finn explained, reiterating what Rey had told him.

“You talked to her first, didn’t you? Always running off to make sure Rey is okay.” Rose said, spite evident in her voice.

“Yes, I talked to her. I wanted to hear her side of things. And I want to hear yours, please.” Finn said, pleading with her to at least see if the stories matched.

“Fine.” Rose said, and then she began retelling her side. Rose, to her credit, told the events similarly to Rey, so Finn was pretty sure he knew exactly what had happened, and what had been said.

“Okay, I think I got all of it. I uh, I think you need to let go, Rose.” Finn said, intending to continue before he got interrupted.

“And when are you letting go of her?” 

“That is up to me, Rose. Even if you can’t truly let it go, please don’t make this get in the way of our friendship. Please don’t try to make me choose sides, or make it disrupt my work here. I can’t have that, and it’s not good for you either. You’ve kept this in you for far too long, that much is clear, so it’s good in a sense that you got it out, you just didn’t go about it in a nice way. Bringing up the lightning stuff for example, that was just cruel. That’s not like you at all.” Finn explained to her, hoping she would understand that she was putting both herself and him in a bad position.

“I shouldn’t have said that, but I don’t like how she’s been stringing you along all this time, only allowing you close when it suits her needs. She’s selfish, Finn.” Rose told him, trying to make him understand how she viewed Rey’s behaviour.

“I have talked with Rey about that. We had a big argument about it, I told her I didn’t like how she had behaved towards me, and that I needed some space, which is why she disappeared for a while. But again, that is between me and her. If loving her is a mistake, then that is my mistake to make. I can’t change how I feel, just like you can’t change how you feel. But we can change how we treat others. Rey hasn’t always been open with me, and she has pushed me away, but she hasn’t been selfish. She has put herself on the line for all of us, trying to make sure I and everyone else here was safe. She just didn’t go about it the right way. She admitted as much to me. We’re trying to move past that now, and I can tell that she’s trying to be better. And I think you too need to try to move past all of this, to at least be able to co-exist with her in peace. If you’re mad and disappointed in me, then so be it, but don’t take it out on others, please.” Finn said, trying to show Rose that everything hadn’t been great between him and Rey either, but that they were working towards fixing that.

“Oh, wow. I didn’t know that.” Rose said, then paused, as if to think. “And things are good between you two now?”

“Better, at least. I’ve started working on the force with her, and it’s been…good, really enjoying it so far.” Finn explained.

“Look, I’m sorry about how I treated her. It was wrong of me. I’ve just…seen how she’s been towards you, and it just really irritated me. It has done, for a really long time. And you running off after her to Ahch-To was just the last drop, I guess.” Rose explained to him.

“I get it, I do. I haven’t always been happy with her either, but she’s explained to me what she was trying to do, and she’s apologized for it. That doesn’t make it go away, but I don’t want it to ruin everything either, so we decided to move on when we talked at Ahch-To.” Finn said, showing some understanding.

“Do you still love her?” Rose asked him directly.

“I don’t know. Part of me wants to say yes, but another part of me is at least hesitant, or scared of being hurt.” Finn told her honestly. “But that doesn’t change anything, Rose. I’m not in love with you. I’m just not. I’m so sorry that isn’t what you want to hear, but I can’t change what I feel. I will always be thankful for you saving my life, for teaching me that lesson on Crait, but I don’t love you, Rose.” Finn answered, knowing it would hurt for her to hear it again, but he needed her to know that it wasn’t anything she could change. She needed closure, for the door to finally be shut and sealed off forever. It wasn’t an option to leave a crack open in case things didn’t work out with Rey. 

Rose sniffled a bit. “I get it, I do. It sucks though.” She said, at least chuckling a tiny bit at the last part.

“I know, I’m sorry, Rose.” Finn said. He knew there wasn’t much left to be said, so he decided to stand up to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” Rose didn’t reply, but he hoped she would do as she said she would, and go talk to Rey. All in all, it had gone okay, he felt. There was clearly a lot of feelings there she had bottled up for far too long, and finally let out in a big firestorm of a fight. Based on what he had figured out, it wasn’t much of a fight though, more of a one-sided attack. He was glad it was though; it could have gotten far worse if Rey had attacked her back.

With that done, he started walking back towards Rey’s room. He wanted to let her know that Rose would talk to her tomorrow, and to see how she was doing. Once he reached her door, the door opened by itself without him asking. She must have sensed me, he figured.

“Felt you coming, knew you would ask so I just opened it. Hope I didn’t spook you.” Rey said once Finn walked in.

“No no, I figured that was why. Anyway, I talked with Rose, she had a bit to vent about, but she apologized eventually, and she said she was sorry about how she treated you, and that she would talk to you tomorrow. Is that okay with you?” Finn told her stopping in front of her bed, where she was sitting up against the wall with the covers over her feet.

“Yeah, that’s okay. I’m glad to hear that, I don’t want to fight with her. I can’t say I’m not mad about some of what she said, but it’s no use continuing to fight about it.” Rey said, putting down her holopad.

“Okay, that’s good. I just wanted to tell you that, I’ll be going now. Good night, Rey.” Finn said, starting to walk towards the door.

“Finn, wait.” Rey said, stopping him in his tracks.

“What is it?” He asked, wondering why he had to wait.

“Could you stay? Please?” Rey pleaded with him.

“I thought you liked sleeping alone?” Finn asked, knowing how Rey had clashed with her previous bunkmates before she got a two-person bunk all for herself.

“I do, but I also like having you around. I’m calmer when you’re around, and I would really like that now, after all that.” She told him, really hoping he would agree.

“Okay. Yeah, I’ll stay.” Finn said, agreeing her proposal. 

“I’ll get the spare sheets.” Rey said, scooting towards the edge of the bed to stand up.

“No, stay there. I’ll get them.” Finn said, holding out his hand to make her stop. “They’re in here, right?” 

“Yeah.”

After putting on the spare sheets on the second bed and getting ready for bed in the bathroom, Finn went to bed. He felt her eyes on him as he got out of the bathroom, only wearing his shirt and boxer, but didn’t say anything. After he was done in there, Rey went and got herself ready. He felt himself peeking at her, like she had at him, but he hoped she didn’t notice. Once she got into her bed, they laid on their sides, facing each other, but not speaking. “Good night, Rey.” Finn finally said, after a good minute of peaceful silence.

“Good night, Finn.”


	14. How Do You Feel?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn wakes up in Rey's bedroom, and then heads off to get ready for work. Poe has a little chat with him before they go.

The following day, Finn woke up early, like he usually did out of habit, and saw that Rey was still sleeping. She must have been exhausted after last night, he thought to himself. Luckily, she had flexible hours with her training, being her own master these days. Not wanting to wake her up, Finn put on his pants and went to leave the bunk in order to get some clean clothes from his own room.

“Finn?” He heard a sleepy voice say as he got near the door.

“Yeah?” He replied back to her.

“Thank you, for staying with me.” Rey said to him in a low morning voice. It was clear she wasn’t properly awake, but she wanted to say it before he left.

“Of course, Rey. I need to get ready for work though, I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Finn replied to her, appreciating her thanks, but not feeling like it was necessary. 

Thankfully, the walk down to his own bunk was merely down the hallway. He and Poe still shared, despite both probably being able to demand single rooms by now, given their rank in the Resistance.

“Good morning Poe.” Finn said as he walked inside, seeing Poe get ready in front of the mirror in the bathroom.

“Mornin’ buddy. How did it go last night? Didn’t see you back here.” Poe said, asking out of curiosity while continuing to do his hair.

Finn sat down on his bed, then replied. “I think it went well, all things considered. Rey seemed a bit down about it, Rose really hurt her, but I think she’ll be fine. Rose was still mad, but I tried to talk her out of it. Seemed like she at least understood where I was coming from. She said she walk apologize to Rey today, so hopefully that goes well.” Finn explained, not giving up too many details.

“That’s good to hear. Imagine that though, you having girl trouble. Good thing it’s not just me.” Poe said with a teasing tone as he walked out of the bathroom, standing in the door opening while talking.

“I’m not having girl trouble, Poe.” Finn said, denying Poe’s definition of the situation.

“And what would you call it?” Poe asked him.

“Two people fighting.” Finn replied.

“…Over you. Ergo girl trouble.” Poe said, finishing Finn’s sentence to tease him further. “Where did you sleep last night anyway? You must have slept somewhere, right?”

“Slept in Rey’s spare bed. She asked me to stay after I had talked with Rose.” Finn explained.

“Oh, look at you, being invited to stay in her room for the night!” Poe said, still teasing Finn a little bit.

“It’s not like that, she was just down about it all and wanted me there, I think. And we slept in separate beds, so nothing different than sleeping on the Falcon really.” Finn replied, not willing to play along with the teasing.

“Finn, you know how much she likes her privacy, especially when she’s sleeping. Last time she had to share a bedroom with anyone outside of the return home from Crait and other trips on the Falcon, she complained up a shitstorm until she got it changed. She _hates_ having people near her when she’s sleeping, you know that. But with you, it’s not just fine, she even actively wants you to be there. That’s a big step Finn.” Poe said, now more serious in his tone.

“I know, but it’s not a big deal. She asked me to stay, so I did.” Finn replied, trying to play down how big of a deal it really was.

“Maybe not to you, but to her that is a big deal. How are things between you two anyway?” Poe told him, hoping Finn understood what a big step Rey had just taken for him.

“I think we’re good. Plan was to train today, after work. At least it was, before all of the stuff that happened last night.” Finn said, not having much to add since last they talked. He had explained a lot to Poe after he returned from Ahch-To, and given that he had barely seen her since, he didn’t feel like there was much more to add.

“How do you feel, like, about her?” Poe asked carefully. He knew it could be a difficult subject, so he didn’t want to push Finn about it.

“What do you mean?” Finn asked back, in a half-assed attempt to dodge the subject.

“I know you had some doubts about her before your fight, but it seemed like you managed to fix things somewhat, so how do you feel about her after that?” Poe clarified.

“I don’t know, really. Part of me wants to just run over to her room right now, tell her that I love her, and hopefully live happily ever after, but another part of me isn’t sure. I’m not sure what to think about the whole Kylo Ren thing. In a sense, she was right, but I don’t find it as easy to forgive him for all he did as it seems like she does. And she kissed him. Did she love him? I don’t think she did, but I don’t really know either. As much as a part of me still loves her, it’s not that easy.” Finn explained honestly. He knew he could trust Poe, and he was his closest confidant, outside of Rey herself. 

“Life isn’t always easy or straightforward. I get that you can’t forgive Kylo Ren, I can’t either, but it’s not him you need to forgive. You have to see if you can forgive her for accepting him. The kiss however is….complicated, I think you will have to talk to her about that, sooner or later. I wouldn’t give up on her though, I think she’s trying her best to be better to you, and that’s all she can really do. Both of you took the right steps in fixing your friendship, so that’s a good start. And again, she trusts you more than anyone else. Her asking you to stay in her room is a massive show of trust for her, don’t forget that Finn.” Poe said, trying to give some wise thoughts to his younger buddy.

“I’ll try to remember that.” Finn replied. “We should get to work though. I’ll just get a shower and then I’ll be there.” 

“Alright, see you in a bit then.” Poe said, heading out the door.

It had been a fairly calm day at work. He had finally caught up with all that had happened while he was gone, and given that nothing really happened that day, with no new info or anything going on, he was mainly just standing around, not doing much. He was hoping he could find Rey later, to see if she was still up for training. Hopefully she had talked with Rose too, and sorted things out, he thought to himself. 

“Finn? Are you free?” He suddenly heard someone say. It was Rey, who had walked over to the command centre to find him.

“I think so. Nothing much really going on, but I’ll have to tell Poe first if I’m leaving.” Finn said, looking around to see if Poe was around.

“Reeeey, what brings you around to these parts?” He suddenly heard Poe say behind him, he was walking out of a separate room and must have spotted her from in there. 

“I was hoping I could talk with Finn, is it okay if I borrow him?” Rey asked him.

“Sure. Not much happening here, so you can take the rest of the day off. I’ll let you know if anything happens here.” Poe said to Finn.

“Thanks buddy.” Finn said, and turned around to Rey. “Lead the way.” 

Rey told Finn to go get changed into something else and then meet her by her usual training spot, out by her practice course a little distance from base. Ten minutes later, he was there, with Rey waiting for him.

“Hey.” He said, walking towards her with a big smile on his face. 

“Hey there. You look awfully happy?” Rey asked, wondering why he was that happy.

“Just eager to get back to training, and to get out of work.” Finn told her honestly. “But you wanted to talk to me?” 

“Oh, yeah. I talked with Rose.” Rey said.

“And? How did it go?” Finn asked, not too keen on the suspense.

“I think it went okay? She said she was sorry about all that she said to me yesterday, that it was mean of her, and uncalled for. I told her that it was okay, and that I forgive her. And that was it, really.” Rey explained.

“And do you forgive her?” Finn asked, wanting to know if she had told Rose the truth.

“I guess? I won’t forget what she said, and I don’t think we’ll be friends anytime soon, but I don’t see any reason to dwell on it. Best to just get it out of the world. She said some stupid things while she was angry, like you said, so it’s best we just leave it at that.” Rey explained.

“That’s really mature of you. Probably for the best not to dwell on it, yeah. Didn’t some Jedi say that anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the dark side?” Finn said, trying to cheer her up a tiny bit.

“Yeah, something like that.” Rey said, smiling at Finn’s recollection of a quote passed on to her from Luke, who had learnt it from his own master years ago. She had later told Finn about it, and apparently, he remembered it.

“If you ever want to talk about it, then I’m here for you.” Finn told her.

“Thank you, I’ll keep that in mind.” Rey said, with a slight smile. She then took his hands, and held them tightly before speaking. “And the same for you, Finn. If you need someone to talk to, no matter what it is, then I want to be there for you. I know I haven’t always been there when I should have, but I want to change that.” Rey told him, looking him right in the eyes. 

“Thank you, Rey. I will remember that.” Finn told her, holding her hands back and looking right back into her eyes.

They stood there for a few seconds after that, their hands lingering in each other’s grasp, with no words spoken. Finally, Finn spoke up. “So, should we get to training?”

Rey, almost like broken out of a trance, let Finns hands go. “Yeah…yeah, we should.” she uttered. 

“So, what’s the plan, _master?_ ” Finn said with a teasing tone, wanting to lighten the mood a bit again.

Rey shoved him lightly for saying that, then spoke up “Well, _padawan_ , I think last time we worked on lifting rocks, so why don’t we resume that, and then maybe move onto something bigger if you can handle it?” She said back, mimicking his teasing done.

“Sounds good.”


	15. Hold Me, Please

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey has a nightmare. Finn tries to help.

The following days were spent largely like the previous one. Finn would head off to work early, while Rey usually slept a little longer before working out and reading while Finn was off. They would then meet up to eat after Finn was done, before heading off to do some relaxed practice. 

Rey felt like Finn was progressing well. He now had full control over smaller objects like pebbles, and was starting to be able to break the barrier in his head that bigger objects would be heavier, gradually learning to pick up bigger and bigger things. He didn’t have full control yet, but he was getting there.

At work, things were mostly calm. The Resistance was mostly doing recon work, and digging into the existing leads they had about First Order presence. The remains of the Order seemed to know that the public had turned on them, so a lot had gone into hiding. Planets still fully controlled by the Order was being monitored, with the Resistance being careful about how to approach each situation. It was imperative to avoid civilian casualties, so a full-on attack wasn’t an option. 

Rey, meanwhile, had started to fall back into the habits she had established after Crait, just with more liberal waking hours. She would wake up, eat, run her practice course, and then go back to read or check on the Falcon. As a result, she was a more constant presence around base than in the first few days she had been back. She didn’t interact with a lot of people outside of Chewie, Finn, Poe and the trio of droids, preferring to keep for herself, but the rest of the resistance appreciated that she was still around.

She had asked Finn to stay the night after he initially did so, and he had obliged without argument. He was starting to believe that Poe was right by now, that this actually was her way of showing that she truly trusts him. They had talked about it again after the second night he stayed.

“I told you Finn; she trusts you completely. You are allowed to be there when she is at her most vulnerable, nobody else are.” Poe told him.

“Yeah, I think you’re right. I don’t really know what to do though. It’s nice and all to sleep in the same room, but I’m still waiting for her to do something. She knows how I feel, so I feel like I’ve done my bit.” Finn said, hesitant of making another move.

“Be patient Finn, she’s getting there. Something will happen soon enough if you’re patient, I promise you.” Poe assured him. He didn’t have any proof, but he was certain that this was Rey opening the door slightly for Finn, allowing him in to see how she liked it. 

“Alright, I will.” Finn said, still not sure.

The same night, Finn was asked to stay yet again, and so he did. After that, he stayed for a few nights, Rey didn’t tell him to, but she never told him not to either. He took that as a good sign. Three days after he had started to stay without her asking, he was woken up in the middle of the night. He heard a lot of movement, and it sounded close.

He turned around, and saw Rey in her bed, moving around a lot in bed, muttering “No, please, no.” She was having a nightmare, he figured. He got out of bed, and crouched down beside hers. He tried speaking to her first, calmly. “Rey, wake up.” He said, but Rey didn’t hear him. “Rey, please, wake up.” He tried again, but still she continued to move around. He then poked her arm, to see if that worked. Still nothing. Feeling desperate to wake her up from the nightmare, he decided to shake her. 

Suddenly, Rey’s eyes shot wide open, like she had seen death. “Rey, Rey. It’s okay. You were having a nightmare, but you’re okay.” Finn said calmly, trying to ease her down again.

“Finn…I…I saw….” Rey started, her eyes wet with tears.

“You had a nightmare, Rey. It’s not real. You’re okay.” Finn said, trying to reassure her.

Rey put her hand out, holding it to Finn’s face, as if checking to see if he was truly real. She didn’t say anything, but relief was evident on her face.

Finn moved to go back to his own bed, but was stopped. “Finn, wait.” She said, mirroring herself from a few days earlier. “Could you stay, please?”

“I’m right here Rey, I’m not going anywhere.” Finn said in response. He was only a few meters away, after all.

“No, with me, in my bed.” Rey explained. “I just…I want to be held.” She continued.

“Oh.” Finn simply said. “Yeah, I can stay with you.” He finished after thinking for a short second about what she had just said.

Finn moved back towards her bed, and climbed over her to the inside of the bed. Rey opened up the covers, and let him settle in behind her back. It took a few seconds to find a comfortable position, but he eventually settled, holding her close to him. Rey soon dozed off again wrapped inside his arms, while Finn was still awake, not quite believing what he was doing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I originally had a different chapter written here, but felt like I was jumping the gun a little with that. That will most likely be the next chapter, just with some minor modifications. That's why this is a bit of a shorter chapter, as it was written fairly quickly to give a more natural development to things.


	16. I'm Not Dressed For This

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn tries out Rey's practice course, then the duo goes swimming in a nearby lake, prompting some long overdue sexual tension.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This where the "rating may change"-tag comes in handy. The rating has been shot right up to explicit, not because I consider this scene that dirty, but because I will most likely do something that will warrant jumping from mature to explicit down the line. 
> 
> If content such as this isn't something you feel comfortable reading, then I advise you to either stop after the practice course or to skip this chapter entirely.

The backside to doing all this force training after work was that Finn didn’t have time to do his usual physical exercise, so he felt like his form was dropping off a bit. Rey was keeping up with hers after doing hers earlier in the day, but he himself didn’t have time. One afternoon, after Rey had met up with him after his work yet again, he brought it up.

“Rey, do you think we could do some different training today, something more physical?” He asked her after he arrived to their usual training spot.

“Not happy with what we’re doing so far?” Rey asked him. She hoped he wasn’t unhappy, but knew she could always improve.

“No, yes, I am happy with it. I’m having a lot of fun so far, it’s just that I feel like I don’t have time for my physical exercise anymore. Feel like I’m slacking a bit.” Finn explained, feeling the need to clarify. 

“Can’t have all those muscles disappear now, can we?” Rey said, his muscles hadn’t gone unnoticed to her at all. 

“No, that wouldn’t be great.” Finn replied, twisting his arm a little, flexing his triceps.

“Well, I have something we can do then. Won’t help your muscles, but it’ll test your cardio for sure.” Rey said, not revealing what it was.

“Oh? And what’s that?” Finn asked her, wanting to know.

“My obstacle course. We can run it, it’s pretty long, and pretty demanding. Think you’re up for it?” Rey said, challenging Finn.

“Always.” Finn simply replied, adamant it wouldn’t be a problem.

“Alright then big deal, try to keep up!” Rey said, starting to run off.

“That’s cheating!” Finn screamed after her, but started to run after her.

While running, Finn was glad he had worn more athletic clothes, as it was pretty humid out there to begin with, and the course was as Rey said, pretty demanding. He found himself stopping at some of the leaps that was required to get through it. Rey figured it could be pretty daunting first time around, so she stopped on the other side of the first one.

“You can do it Finn.” She said, encouraging him.

“How the hell do you make that leap?” He asked.

“Use the force. Will yourself to make it over as you jump, and you will make it.” Rey said, confident that he could. “If by some chance you don’t, then I’ll catch you.”

“Alright, I’ll try.” Finn said, before backing up a bit. He then sprinted towards the edge, and took as big of a leap as he could, willing himself to make it. And it worked. It was as if he had pushed himself over there using the force, like Rey suggested. 

“Holy fuck, how did I do that?” Finn merely said after the landed.

“Told you that you could make it. You are much stronger than you think, if you only allow yourself and push yourself to use it. But that will come in time.” Rey said, explaining why she believe in him so much.

“Well, shit. I’ve seen you do some crazy things, including some jumps that just defy everything I’ve ever learned, but I didn’t imagine I could do that, even with the force.” Finn said. 

“It wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve used it without knowing in the past, in your training. You did say you were top of your class, after all. Could be that you used it a bit without truly knowing.” Rey explained to him. 

“That could be.” Finn said. “But we can talk about that later.” He then continued, starting to run off ahead of Rey as revenge for earlier.

“Oh no you don’t!” Rey said, running right after him. She was able to catch up to him eventually through better knowledge of the area, but Finn was still very fast. His athletic ability was very evident, if he eventually managed to consistently use the force to help him, he would be an absolute force, pun very much intended, she thought to herself as they were running. Soon enough, they had run the whole course, and was back to the start. 

“How did you like it?” Rey asked him, both regaining their breath a bit.

“You were right, that was pretty demanding.” Finn acknowledged. “And you ran that multiple times a day a while back?”

“Yup. It gets a bit easier once you know it though, but that also means you can’t catch your breath at every hindrance.” Rey said, teasing him a bit for stopping at the trickier sections.

“I’ll be better next time.” Finn said, feeling like he had an idea about how to deal with most of the hindrances by now.

“Alright then, we go again!” Rey said, starting to move and waving her hand for Finn to get a move on. 

They ran through the course a second time, this time a bit faster, as Finn started to get more comfortable with the hindrances. He still wasn’t completely sure about the few big leaps, but made it once he made up his mind, and got some encouragement from Rey. By the end of the second lap, they were both out of breath, and drenched in sweat.

“Ugh, I can’t believe you used to run this so many times a day. Just two rounds and I feel dead.” Finn said out of breath, amazed at how fit she was. He was in good shape himself, but this was pushing it.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty dead now too, but I did do a few laps earlier today.” Rey confessed, she herself breathing a bit heavier.

“I think this is it for me though, I’m going to need a good trip to the fresher after this.” Finn said.

Rey looked like she was hesitating a bit, but then decided to speak. “If you want to, we can go to the lake, and relax a bit there? Temperature is pretty nice there.” She suggested hesitantly, hoping he would agree.

Finn stopped, as if contemplating it, then smiled. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

They walked over to the lake slowly, idly chatting about their days. Finn told Rey more about the Stormtrooper academy thing he had been looking into, while Rey told him about what she had been reading about in the old Jedi texts after her initial morning workout. When they finally reached the lake, they found an open area with some grass that hadn’t grown too long, and sat down. 

“You know, I don’t really have the clothes to go swimming right now.” Finn noted.

“I don’t either. It’s fine though, we can do without swimwear.” Rey replied. She knew about it when she asked, but didn’t really see it as a problem. 

“Fair enough.” Finn said, he didn’t have much of an issue swimming in his briefs if Rey was fine with it. “Remember last time we were here?”

At the mention of that, Rey’s face flushed red instantly. She remembered all too well. “Y-y-yeah, I do.” She said nervously.

“I taught you some swimming techniques. You had even swum before on Ahch-To, but didn’t really know how to do it properly.” Finn said, recalling that day.

“Yeah, I remember that. You knew some good techniques, and I felt so safe when you held me while I practiced. It was really helpful, and nice to be held.” Rey said, hiding her face slightly not to show her embarrassment. She remembered his hands on her out there in the water, holding her tightly, with no shirt on. 

“You looked really happy out there that day.” Finn noted.

“I’m always happy when I can spend some time with you alone, Finn. And the way you held me, it was like I was safe no matter what, my fears disappeared.” Rey said, turning around to look at him.

“I’m glad I could help you, Rey.” Finn told her. 

Rey stood up, and held out her hand. “Should we?” She said suggestively, nodding towards the water.

“Yeah.” Finn replied.

Rey then pulled him up, and the two of them started undressing. Finn quickly pulled off his shirt, causing Rey to stop unwrapping her armwraps, staring right at his thick, muscled chest and toned arms. If he had been skipping training recently, it sure didn’t show yet. 

“Rey are you okay?” Finn asked.

“Y-y-yeah.” Rey said, and quickly resumed taking off her armwraps. That was the one con of her otherwise very practical and comfortable choice of outfit, it took a while to get on and off. When she started to remove her tunic, Finn looked away, ever the gentleman. “Finn you don’t need to look away.” Rey told him. 

“No, it’s fine.” Finn replied, still looking away out of respect. She could see his scar when he stood there with his back turned to her, the one had gotten while trying to protect her. She felt a bit sad upon seeing it, but then he took off his pants, giving her a perfect view of his ass underneath his briefs, distracting her from her sad thoughts. She couldn’t resist looking at him by now, while undressing herself. When Finn finally turned around again, Rey was stood there with only her breastwraps and underwear left. Now he couldn’t resist staring either, at her thin, athletic build. Her body was gorgeous, despite all she had been through. He was so distracted by her that he didn’t notice Rey staring right back him, noticing the excitement in his briefs.

Finally, Rey turned around, showing her well built ass to him for a brief moment before running out into the water. He stood still for a moment, mesmerized by her, then ran right after her. The water was warm and comfortable. Rey went straight for a dive, and Finn didn’t want to be any worse, and did the same. They popped up seconds apart.

“This water is so comfortable; I love the temperature here.” Rey said, having felt the cold water of Ahch-To and Endor to compare against.

“Yeah, it’s really nice here. Bit strange how the rest of the resistance haven’t discovered the place yet.” Finn replied, sort of wondering why nobody else went here. 

“Well, it is a bit of a distance from base. Probably just don’t want to walk all the way here. I think it’s nice, it can be our own secret spot.” Rey said, not wanting to reveal the spot to anyone else.

“Our own secret spot.” Finn said while looking away into nothing, almost like he was thinking out loud. “Yeah, that sounds nice.” He finished, looking back at Rey. 

Rey only smiled at that, but then decided to splash water in his face.

“Oh, you think you can play?” Finn said in response, before making an even bigger splash right in her face. The two then proceeded to splash water on each other for a little while, before deciding to lay down arms. They were both soaked was the conclusion, so nobody won.

“I missed this.” Rey finally said, after their little war was over.

“What do you mean?” Finn asked, not sure what she meant.

“Us, being together, not worrying about war, work, training, anything. It’s like when we first ran away together, or the brief period of quiet we got after we found this planet, like when you taught me how to swim here. I missed just being with you, having fun.” Rey explained to him honestly, taking his hands in hers again.

“I did too. Training with you has been really nice, you know. I felt like we didn’t ever have time to just sit down and talk, relax, or to have any fun. But we do now.” Finn said, agreeing with her.

“Yeah, I’ve really enjoyed it too. And I want to do all of those things, with you.” Rey told him, looking him in the eyes. She could see that he was looking right back at her, with those big, brown eyes. It wasn’t the eyes of someone wanted to run, but the eyes someone that looked happy, right then and there. She wanted to just lean forward and kiss him right then and there, but she was scared. Scared of breaking their newfound bliss, of ruining the moment by taking that chance. She wasn’t sure that he still felt that way either. Finn didn’t do anything either, despite how clearly excited he had been at seeing her undressed, so Rey eventually just knocked the idea away and let go of his hands.

They stayed out in the water for a tiny bit longer, before deciding to get back to shore so they could dry off in the sun while there was still daylight left. Back on shore, the sexual tension was thick in the air. Rey was first up from the water, and could see the water dripping off his toned body as he walked out of it. She had to stop herself from jumping him right then and there, she wanted him bad. Finn was no better, looking up at her when she turned around to look at him exiting the water, seeing her hardened nipples through the wet fabric of her breastwrap. He desperately wanted those wraps off, to finally see her, but was hesitant to make the first move. Once they got closer, they both realized what they were doing, and looked away, embarrassed. 

They dried off in silence after that, and then got dressed once they were slightly less wet, walking back to base to their separate rooms, still too embarrassed to speak after the mental undressing they had both done to each other.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, they finally failed to hold their desires to themselves. Finn has wanted Rey for a long time, and Rey, once she is honest with herself, is no better. They practically wanted to devour each other, but Finn doesn't want to make the first move, and Rey is scared after what he said those weeks ago about him not being sure anymore. Obviously, this needs to be resolved and fast.
> 
> Outside of that, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I certainly enjoyed writing it.


	17. Why Didn't You Kiss her?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe hears about what happened out by the lake, and is less than pleased with Finn. He attempts to fix things by speaking with them both.

Finn decided to return to his own room to stay for the night after that awkward moment, not wanting to face Rey right away. Poe had gotten used to him staying with Rey now, so he was kind of surprised to see him, but noticed that he was kind of wet.

“Hey buddy, been out swimming or something? Your clothes are all wet.” Poe asked as Finn entered the room.

“Yeah, I have.” Finn replied shortly.

“Come for a fresh change of clothes and then heading back I guess?” Poe said, assuming he would be going back to Rey right away.

“No, I’m going to the fresher and then I’m staying.” Finn said, entering the fresher and closing the door behind him, leaving Poe puzzled.

Ten minutes later, Finn exited the fresher, wearing only a towel.

“Wanna tell me what happened?” Poe asked him.

“Primarily want to get dressed.” Finn said, grabbing some clean clothes out of his closet.

“Okay, but you’re telling me right after.” Poe demanded.

“Fine.” Finn sighed, slightly annoyed. Finn went back into the fresher to get dressed, and came out again two minutes later, and sat down on his bed.

“Okay, what happened Finn? Why are you back here, not going back to Rey, and avoiding telling me why?” Poe asked him, demanding to know it all.

Finn then proceeded to recall what had happened out there by the lake, including all the staring that had going on between the two. By the time Finn had finished telling what happened, Poe sat there with his face buried in his hands, unable to show his frustration.

“WHY DIDN’T YOU KISS HER!?” Poe suddenly burst out in frustration; his hands held out from his body just to showcase his frustration with Finn.

“It didn’t feel right, she didn’t give me the signal.” Finn replied.

“That long, lingering hand holding, that is the signal Finn. You should have kissed her.” Poe said, adamant that Finn had screwed up.

“Look, I didn’t want to kiss her.” Finn then went on to say.

“Yes, you do.” Poe said, not buying it.

“Okay, yes, I do want to, but I want _her_ to kiss _me_ , not the other way around. She knows how I feel, I’ve told her as much, I just wish she would say it back, or do _something_.” Finn said, trying to explain why he didn’t want to make the move himself.

“You two are hopeless. You literally eye-fucked each other for a good hour or so, but none of you can bring yourself to make a move because you’re waiting for the other one.” Poe said, exasperated from hearing all of this.

“It’s not that easy.” Finn said, a bit defensive.

“Finn, you’ve slept in her bed for the past few days. The two of you are practically a couple already, you spend all your time off duty with her, or thinking about her. And she has invited you to her bed and looked at you like she would fuck your brains out if given the chance. What more do you need? For her to blink twice and bow to signify her love?” Poe said, pointing out all the things that indicted how Rey felt the exact same for him.

“I just want her to make the move, Poe. I already told her what I feel, I just want her to do the same. And even then, it’s not like this Kylo Ren thing will just disappear.” Finn said, not backing down from his stance.

Without a word, Poe stood up and walked out. He knew he wouldn’t get any further talking to Finn, and Finn wasn’t going to do anything either, as much as part of him clearly wanted to. 

“Poe where are you going?” He heard Finn shout after him, but he didn’t see him following, luckily.

Poe walked down the hallway, and reached Rey’s room. He proceeded to knock on the door.

“Finn, is that you?” He heard a hopeful Rey say from the other side of the door.

“No, it’s Poe. Can I come in?” Poe answered back, knowing it wasn’t who she really wanted to see.

“Yeah.” Rey replied, and opened the door using the force, like she had gotten a habit of doing.

Not mincing any words or waiting around, Poe got straight to the point was he walked in. “Finn told me what happened out by the lake, and that he’s slept in your bed for the past few days.”

“H-h-he did?” Rey said, stuttering slightly. She clearly didn’t think anyone knew, but forgot that Finn told Poe most things, especially if Poe pushed him a bit.

“Look, Rey. He’s in love with you. You know he is; I know he is, and he knows he is. But you hurt him, and he isn’t completely over everything yet, so he doesn’t want to make a move, when he really should.” Poe explained to her.

“I know I hurt him, but I can’t change that. I’m trying to open up more to him, since I pushed him so much away in the past. And he told me that he wasn’t sure if he still felt that way, back when we fought.” Rey said in response.

“I know you are trying, and it seems to me like you are doing way better. And he does love you, I’m sure about that, he’s just hesitant to make the first move. But this thing between you, you need to resolve it somehow. You need to figure out what you want to do, and go from there. If you don’t do anything, then you’ll just drift apart again.” Poe told her, acknowledging that she had been doing better. She deserved to be told as much, he felt.

“I know, it’s just, I was just so wrapped up in the bliss of us back as friends again, that I didn’t really think about anything more, until the past week or so. It was so peaceful and easy again, but now it seems like we’ve burst the bubble yet again.” Rey said, with a tinge of sadness.

“Do you love him?” Poe asked straight up.

“I…I know that I trust him, with anything and everything. I’ve felt so safe with him near me, the past few days. And I do want him. I can barely get him out of my mind by now.” Rey admitted, not directly saying it.

“That sounds like love to me, Rey.” Poe pointed out. 

“I just don’t know how I would even do it; this isn’t something I’ve ever done before.” Rey said, unsure about how to deal with things.

“You need to tell him what you feel about him. It may seem scary, but you know how he feels about you, so if you truly want it, then the only thing stopping it is you. If you can’t say it, then show him. Do what one of you should have done earlier today, and just kiss him. It’ll all work out, I promise. Just don’t wait around, please.” Poe said, trying to give her some honest advice. 

“I..I will talk to him, I promise.” Rey said.

“Okay, that works for me.” Poe said, starting to walk towards the door. “Just don’t wait around for too long.” He turned around to tell, before opening the door.

“Poe, wait a moment.” Rey said, stopping him before he could leave. “I have an idea. But promise me you won’t tell him until after his shift tomorrow, okay?”


	18. Speechless

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe talks Finn into Rey's plan, without revealing what it is, which irritates an already moody Finn.

“So, you want me to go out to the lake again, right now?” Finn asked right at the end of his shift.

“Correct.” Poe confirmed to him.

“Why?” Finn asked, wanting a reason to head back out there.

“Finn, enough with the questions. Just go there.” Poe said, taking his arm around Finn’s shoulder, before giving him a slight push out the door.

“Seriously?” Finn said, annoyed at this whole thing. He figured that it had something to do with Rey, but what would it really change? Things were just awkward after the episode yesterday, and he felt like it wasn’t his job to do anything more. There wasn’t anything more he could say, so meeting up would be quite pointless unless she was willing to be honest with him.

“Yes. Go on, get!” Poe said, giving him a second push away. 

“ _Fine._ ” Finn grumbled. 

He knew why he was being sent out there. Rey was there, he knew it. He could sense her presence as he got nearer and nearer to the lake, as they had trained specifically on recognizing each other. But he didn’t know what was going to happen. Was she going to tell him what he wanted to hear? Was she just interested in being friends? He would soon know, he figured, so no point in wasting any more time on it.

Once he got near the place they had been the day before, he saw her meditating. She wasn’t floating or lifting rocks this time, however, just sitting there on the grass, calm. Once he got closer, she opened her eyes, stood up and turned around.

“Finn, you came.” She said, relief evident in her voice.

“Yeah, I did. Poe told me to go here, but refused to tell me why. I figured it was you though, he wouldn’t have kept it a secret otherwise. I assume this isn’t about training?” Finn said, not too pleased that Poe hadn’t just told him.

“Sorry, it was my idea. I just, I needed to talk to you.” Rey said.

“About yesterday?” Finn said, somewhat interrupting her.

“Yeah, about yesterday.” Rey confirmed. She then moved slightly closer to him, so they wouldn’t stand several meters apart.

“Look, Rey. I think I’ve said all I need to say.” Finn said, not too interested in talking about his feelings. He’d been there, done that in his eyes. It was in her ballpark now.

“Yes, you did tell me. But there’s something that I need to know. Back when we fought, you said that you loved me, or that you used to, or didn’t know anymore. Have you…you figured that out?” Rey asked him, needing to know if he was sure of his feelings now.

“Rey, I…I don’t know.” Finn said.

“You don’t know?” Rey asked. Surely, he knew by now.

“I’m scared, Rey. I’ve loved you ever since I met you, but the Rey I saw after Crait was hard to recognize. I’ve seen the Rey I fell in love with again these past few weeks, and I’ve been happy, but I’m still scared that I’m in love with someone that doesn’t feel the same for me. You say and show that you trust me, and you look at me in that way, like I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to you, but I need to hear it or see it for myself before I can truly get myself to believe that you feel the same. So, I can’t, I can’t say that I love you.” Finn explained, showing that he still didn’t truly believe that Rey felt the same, and was holding himself back for that reason.

Rey didn’t truly know what to say. She was standing there, mouth slightly open, no words coming out. She wanted to speak, but she couldn’t get anything out. After a few seconds, Finn sighed, thinking he would never hear it back. Rey, thinking on the spot, decided to act. She leapt forwards and grabbed the sides of his face, pulling him in for an urgent and rough kiss. Finn didn’t resist the kiss, and soon they melted into a deeper more comfortable kiss. She could feel his bigger, soft lips upon hers, and it was just as nice as she had hoped.

After a little while, they pulled away to catch their breaths, looking each other in the eyes.

“Finn, I….” Rey started to say.

“Rey, I, I can’t, I’m sorry.” Finn said, stopping her from speaking completely. He then backed away from her, turned, and ran off, leaving a teary eyed and confused Rey behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, couldn't let them fix it just yet. Please forgive me.


	19. It's Kylo Ren

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn returns back to work right after the situation with Rey, and encounters Poe, who is less than pleased.

“Hey, buddy, why are you back so quick? And where’s Rey?” Poe said, as Finn returned to their shared office to get back to work.

“Out by the lake. She kissed me, and then I left.” Finn said, not especially interested in talking about it. 

“You did _what_? She kissed you, and you just _left_ her?” Poe asked, like what Finn had just said was the most incredulous thing he had ever heard.

“Yes. Look, Poe, I don’t want to talk about it. Can we just get back to work, please?” Finn said, trying to avoid the subject completely.

“No, Finn. That's the worst thing I have ever heard you do. Why would you do that? Seriously, why are you doing this to her, to yourself. You want her, yet you keep avoiding her. Why?” Poe asked, not backing down from the questioning.

Finn stood up to leave, and started walking towards the door, but Poe, having his desk closer to the door, stood up and blocked the exit.

“You are not leaving this room until you explain this, Finn.” Poe said with a determined tone, pointing his finger at Finn. 

“Poe, this is none of your damn business. Let me leave, now.” Finn said, demanding to leave.

“It’s my damn business when you are hurting one of my friends for no reason, and hurting yourself in the process because you’re too proud to let yourself be happy with her. You are explaining this, NOW.” Poe said, not backing down whatsoever, and raising his voice at Finn.

“It’s Kylo Ren, Poe. That’s why.” Finn said like it was the most obvious thing in the world, then pushed his way past a stunned Poe, opened the door and left, slamming it behind him.

Poe knew he had to find Rey right away. Finn had been irritated and on edge ever since he returned the day before, but this was taking it too far. He knew that the kiss on Exegol had hurt Finn, and he didn’t understand why Rey had done it, but it clearly mattered a lot to Finn, enough for him to push Rey away, mimicking what she had done to him. The only person that could fix this was Rey herself. He himself had done more than enough by now, but he wanted to do this one last thing before stepping aside.

Unlike Finn, Poe couldn’t sense where Rey was, so when he couldn’t find her in her bunk, he went out to the lake to find her. Darkness was falling over the planet, but this couldn’t wait. Sadly, she wasn’t there either. He only had one option left by then, the Falcon. If she wasn’t there, then he truly didn’t know.

Luckily, the Falcon was still there when walked back to base. By now, Poe was starting to get irritated too. This truly wasn’t his problem, but he couldn’t let his friends do this when they should be happy together. And seeing them struggle this much with sorting this out was starting to get to him, this shouldn’t be this difficult to sort out. Yes, Rey had made a mistake, and despite being as confused by it as Finn, he didn’t see it as worth still being mad about when she was making a serious effort to improve. He just hoped Finn wouldn’t let his pride stop him from being happy. But that was an issue for later, for now he had to talk with Rey, she deserved to know why Finn had done what he did, so that she hopefully could talk with him.

Poe opened up the Falcon, and looked inside. After looking into the main room and cockpit, he went to the main bedroom. And there she was, tucked into a bed, blanket over her, lying sideways towards the wall.

“Rey.” Poe opened softly. “I heard about what happened. I tried talking with him, but I don’t think he wants to me to interfere anymore.” She wasn’t responding. She was moving slightly, so he knew she was awake and could hear him, so he continued. “I managed to get him to say briefly why he did what he did, and then he stormed off from me too.” She still wasn’t turning around. “Rey, can you turn around for me? I would like to see you when I’m talking to you, please.” He finally said.

Rey turned around, and sat up to face him. He could see it clearly in her face that she had been crying. Her eyes were wet, and red, and she had clearly just tucked herself in without taking off anything other than her shoes.

“W-w-what did he say?” Rey asked, struggling to really get the words out.

“He said that it was Kylo Ren, and then he stormed off.” Poe said. It was short, but it was truly all he knew.

“Of course…” Rey said, looking down at the floor, the tears coming back.

“Rey, I’m sorry that pushed you to go do something drastic before you had that sorted out. That was terrible advice on my end, and I’m sorry about that.” Poe said honestly. 

“Poe, it’s not your fault. I should have talked with him about it, but it’s just…how do you bring that up? And I was so happy again, I didn’t want to ruin that by bringing it back up again. I just hope…that he still loves me..” Rey explained, still looking straight down into the ground.

“I know I’m probably the last person you would want to give you advice now, but I know he loves you. He’s just mad about what happened on Exegol. It didn’t stop you being friends, but he has probably been holding this in for a long time, and you kissing him probably brought it back. He shouldn’t have done it like that, but he is clearly upset. If you talk with him, then I think you can get him back to his senses.” 

“I just don’t know, Poe. I finally opened up to him, and he hurt me.” Rey said, looking right at Poe now, sadness evident on her face.

“I’m gonna tell you exactly what I told him after you two fought: don’t give up on him.” Poe said, sensing Rey’s doubt.

“You did that?” Rey asked, surprised but glad that Poe had stuck up for her.

“Yes, I did. I just want you two to be happy. I know there has been some issues, and there’s still some left, but the two of you have something special. You have a connection, a love, that is natural and good. Any person that see you two together can see that. That’s why I want you two to work this out, because I know that you will both be happy together if you do.” Poe said, practically going on a rant about why he believes in the two of them together.

“Wow, Poe…” Rey said, then jumped to her feet and hugged Poe. “Thank you, so much. For believing in me, in us.” She said, while wrapped around him.

“Of course, Rey. Just promise me that you’ll talk with him. You two need to work this out somehow, together.” Poe said in return.

“I will. I want this to work out, I’m in love with him.” Rey said, finally openly saying it.

I the meantime, Chewbacca had come walking in, having seen that the ramp to the Falcon was open. He saw Poe standing in the door opening to the bunk, with a puffy faced Rey looking like she had cried. Seeing that, he roared with a concerned voice.

“I’m fine, Chewie.” Rey assured him, while pulling away from Poe, who moved a bit to the side so the two could speak. Chewie roared again in response.

“Me and Finn had a fight, kind of.” Rey explained to him. Chewie roared yet again, this time with an angrier tone.

“No, no, please don’t do that Chewie. I will work it out with him, I promise.” Rey said, not wanting Chewie to do anything drastic.

Chewie roared again, agreeing to not do anything. Rey was glad to have Chewie, he had been fiercely protective of her ever since he became her co-pilot, and he knew all there was to know about the ship. He did however not need to hurt Finn because Finn had hurt her, she knew that wouldn’t end well.

“Why did you go here anyway, Rey? I don’t think he was going to go to your room.” Poe finally asked Rey, having wondered about that since he found her.

“I couldn’t sleep there, it…smells like him.” Rey explained. 

“Oh, right.” Poe said, realizing why.

“Now if you two will excuse me, I need to go find him.” Rey said, slipping past both Poe and Chewie and walking out of the Falcon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, Poe is quite pushy here, and will probably need to apologize himself for this later. I promise though, the wheels are in motion. Stay tuned tomorrow for the next chapter.


	20. Real, Natural and Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey finds Finn, and they talk about the one subject they had avoided for weeks. Can they sort things out?

Rey could sense that Finn wasn’t in his room, nor hers. She reached further out, and felt him a bit further away. He wasn’t at the lake, he was closer. He was moving, and fast. Rey started running herself, hoping to catch him. After a few minutes, she reached her practice course. It was dark by now, with the only light coming from the makeshift hut Leia had gotten made so that Rey would have access to water by the practice course. It certainly wasn’t the time to go running out here, but she knew Finn was nearby. A little minute later, he came running, having finished his lap.

“Finn, you shouldn’t be out here now, you can barely see anything.” Rey said as he jogged down and stopped a few meters away from her, hands on his knees to catch his breath.

“I hope you didn’t come out here to tell me that?” Finn answered back. 

“No, I didn’t, but I just don’t want you to get hurt. If you hurt yourself here in the middle of the night, best chance is that I’d find you the next morning if you weren’t able to get back.” Rey said, worrying about him.

“I know, I just needed to get my mind off things, and exercise helps me do that. And as you can see, I’m fine.” Finn said, explaining why he was even out there.

“Okay. Look, I want to talk about what happened earlier. These past two days have been weird between us, and I don’t want that. Poe told me what you told him.” Rey started.

“Yeah, it’s been…weird. I’m sorry I left you like that earlier, I just panicked. It brought back some stuff.” Finn said, feeling a bit bad about earlier after hearing how mad Poe got at him for it.

“It’s okay, Finn. Just don’t do that now, please. I promise I won’t either, I just want us to fix this somehow.” Rey said, accepting his apology.

“Okay, I’ll stay.” Finn said.

“Should I start or you start?” Rey asked, not sure if he wanted to begin or not. 

“I’ll start.” Finn said right away, before taking a deep breath. “The reason that I reacted like I did earlier, was that I’m not really over the Kylo Ren kiss. You kissing me brought that back to my mind again, and I just panicked. It wasn’t the right thing for me to do, and I shouldn’t have handled it like that, but it’s not something I have forgotten. It was fine when it was just about being friends, as your friend it’s not really my concern, but I think it’s clear that we can’t just be friends. There’s too much here for that. I just don’t understand why it happened, why you did it. It hurt me right away when you told me, because I’ve been in love with you for so long now, and instead you kissed him.” Finn explained to her.

“I get that, I do. I wish I had a good explanation for you, I really do. More than anything I wish that it never happened, but I can’t undo the past. As you said yourself, I had no reason to show gratitude towards him, I didn’t owe him that. It just…happened. I didn’t think, I just did it. The best I can offer you as an explanation is that I was happy. Happy that Palpatine was dead, that we had won, that Kylo had finally done the right thing, and that I was alive. All of that made me do it, without really thinking through what it meant. I’m sorry that isn’t a good explanation, but I just don’t have one. I’m sorry I did that.” Rey said, trying to explain herself.

“Did you love him?” Finn then asked her directly.

“No. I didn’t love him. We had a bond, a very strange bond that I will probably never understand, and I don’t think I want to understand, but that was it. I didn’t kiss him out of love.” Rey said, denying that love had anything to do with it.

“Okay.” Finn said, not sure what to say.

Rey sensed his hesitation, so she decided to continue. “But what I do know and understand is that you and I also have a bond. You felt me die, Finn. You had no training in the force, and despite that you felt that. Leia told me she had something similar with Han, who didn’t even have the force. She felt him die. We have that. That bond hasn’t been forged by any evil powers or meant to manipulate any of us. It’s real, natural and good. And I do know that when I kissed you, I didn’t have any doubts. I don’t struggle to understand or explain that one, not to myself or anyone else. I love you, Finn.” Rey said, finally admitting her love, and trying to explain that they were bonded through the force in a good-natured way, unlike her bond with Kylo.

“You…do?” Finn asked, not sure if he heard that last part right.

“I do, Finn. It has taken me a while to realize it, longer than it should have. Part of me always loved you, for coming back for me, for always being there for me. But it’s just in these past few weeks that I realized that it’s more than that. I feel safe and happy whenever I’m around you. Nobody else makes me feel like you do, Finn. I was trying to tell you earlier, but I just couldn’t get any words out. That’s when I kissed you, to show you instead. I was about to say it right after, but then you ran off. I love you, Finn. I don’t have any doubts about that.” Rey explained, and reiterating the words so that Finn knew.

Finn was speechless for a moment; he didn’t truly know what to say to her. But he knew what he wanted. He wanted her, he didn’t want to fight her, not when the option of accepting what had happened and moving on together, united, was the better option. Suddenly he realized that Rey’s solution to being speechless was kind of brilliant, and decided to copy it. He closed the small gap between them, put a hand behind her head and into her lovely buns, and leant in to capture her lips. It felt great, and right, her soft, smaller lips onto his, this time with their mouths opening, and the tongues beginning a lovely tango. Unlike earlier, there was no doubt, no hesitation or regret. Only euphoria and love.

It took them a little while, but they finally separated to catch their breaths. They looked into each other’s eyes, her hazel eyes looking at him like she had the day they met, and his brown eyes looking at her like she was the only one in the universe that mattered. Even though it was dark, with only a small light in the background illuminating them slightly, they could both see each other so clearly, like they were glowing in each other’s eyes. “I love you, Rey.” Finn finally said.

“I love you, Finn.” Rey said in return, before they went in for a second kiss, this time together, in unison. This one was shorter, but still just as sweet and lovely. After they separated again, they walked back to base, hand in hand. They walked straight to Rey’s room, needing some rest after the long day they had been through. It had been emotional, stressful and difficult for them both. But it was worth it. 

Unbeknownst to them both, they had been watched as they walked into bunk building. From a low rooftop view a view to the path to Rey’s training course and to the bunk building, a trio sat, watching them hold hands as their entered, the door closing behind them. Once they knew that Finn and Rey were out of sight and couldn’t hear them, they finally spoke.

“Nice!” Poe said half-loud while pumping his right fist in the air, cheering for his friends. Beside him, Chewbacca roared in joy. Poe had let him in on what he had been trying to do after Rey had walked off from the Falcon, and they decided to stay up to see how it went. 

“Great work, Poe. You did well with those two.” Zorii chimed in from his right, happy to see the pair finally united. She didn’t know them all that well, but she had noticed their fondness for each other, and how close they were when she had first met them. And she was happy to see that Poe had managed to help them fix things. He was right, she thought to herself. There is no reason to let pride get in the way of your happiness. 

“Thanks, Zorii. It’s been a long time coming, but I think they’re in the clear now. I’m so happy for those two idiots.” Poe said, genuine joy on his face.

“Idiots can be pretty great sometimes.” She said, then wrapped her arm over to his left shoulder and leant in. Poe seemed surprised by this, and turned his head slightly to face her. And then she leant in and kissed him, after all these years. It was short and brief, but they both looked at each other with a smile. 

Chewbacca roared again after seeing that unfold.

“Yes Chewie, we will get a room.” Poe said, listening to his older friend. 

“It’s probably time we went to bed anyway. You’ve done well today. Both of you.” Zorii said. After that, they walked back to their rooms, Chewie to the room he was allowed to keep for himself due to his size, while Zorii joined Poe in walking back to his. Finn presumably wouldn’t be there anyway, so why not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Promised you guys I would give you some fluff eventually.


	21. Newfound Bliss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn goes to work after spending the night with Rey, and discovers what Poe had been doing the night before. Afterwards, he and Rey goes to practice, but soon enough some shenanigans ensue.

The next morning, Finn and Rey woke up, wrapped together in bed, with his arm wrapped around her, his front pressed against her back. They had pretty much collapsed instantly after they had gotten ready for bed, happy and relieved to have fixed things and to finally be together, but exhausted after all of the mental stress they had put each other through. Finn really wanted to stay with her for the rest of the day, but knew that wasn’t an option.

Finn slipped out of bed without waking her, got himself dressed, then was about to leave when he remembered something. He turned around, and bent down beside the still sleeping Rey, and kissed her on the forehead. He didn’t mean to wake her by doing that, but her eyes still fluttered opened, still very sleepy. 

“Finn? Where are you going?” She asked with a sleepy voice. 

“I need to get to work. We’ve slept in, Rey.” Finn explained.

“Oh, right. See you later for practice?” Rey asked him, to be certain they were still continuing.

“Yeah, I’ll see you then.” Finn said, then bent down again, capturing her lips. “Love you.” He said, and then stood up to leave again.

“Love you too, Finn.” Rey said, with Finn stopping long enough in the door opening to hear her say it. He gave her a smile, then closed the door behind him to go get some fresh clothes in his own room.

He entered his room, and instantly felt like something was different. It smelled different. And then he saw Poe sleeping, with Zorii wrapped over him, and realized what it was. It was good to see them finally together; it had been a long road to get there. He silently got some fresh clothes he could wear to work out of his closet, then snuck into the fresher and changed, careful not to wake the lovebirds up. He then snuck out of the room, and walked to the command centre.

Luckily, the Resistance was pretty good at running itself by now, so Poe and him being late for work for once hadn’t been an issue, though it was noted. Until Poe woke up, Finn got to work, intent on giving a good effort after his less than top effort the day prior. He apologized for being late, and explained that Poe might be late too, without saying why. And hour later, Poe came walking in, his hair a complete mess, and with the very obvious smell of deodorant to cover up that he hadn’t taken the time to shower once he realized what the time was.

“Hey there, have a good night?” Finn asked him as he came walking in.

“Uh hi, yeah, I slept well, too well apparently.” Poe said, pretending innocence.

“Sure. How is Zorii?” Finn asked, deciding to make sure that Poe knew that he knew.

“What? Oh, shit. You saw us?” Poe said, realizing that he couldn’t pretend he had just overslept.

“Yeah, I came in there to get some clean clothes, and there you were, both of you. And even if I hadn’t seen her, the smell would have given you away. I hope you left the window open after you left.” Finn explained to him, assuring Poe that he knew what had happened in there. 

“Crap! No, I didn’t do that. I just left her there when I realized I was late, so hopefully she does it. Sorry.” Poe said. “How about you though, did you and Rey talk?”

“Yeah, we did. We’re…good now, really good. Thank you, by the way, for pushing me and being there so I had someone to talk about it with. Sorry I was rude to you yesterday.” Finn said, feeling good about the situation with Rey now. 

“Oh, that’s good to hear. And it’s okay, it’s me that should say sorry, really. I raised my voice at you, and I’ve been interfering way more in your life than I really should, so you had all right to be mad at me.” Poe said, knowing that he had overstepped his boundaries a bit, but not wanting to reveal that he had seen them walk back to her room the night prior.

“No, seriously. Thank you. I know you talked with Rey too, so thank you for pushing us both. We probably needed that more than we realized.” Finn said, not mad at Poe after how things turned out last night. 

“Oh, come here buddy.” Poe said, pulling Finn in for a hug. 

Finn accepted it, and hugged back for a bit, before coming with a remark. “You really need a shower, Poe, you stink.” 

“I know.” Poe said, pulling away from the hug. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”

The resistance had learned that the First Order had been training young soldiers on the planet of Eriadu, which was obviously something Finn took special interest in. The problem was that the facility was in the crowded city of Eriadu City, where the First Order still had a strong presence. Any major attack would lead to the loss of many innocent lives, which was why the Resistance was merely monitoring the planet for now, looking for ways they could infiltrate it and take control without using direct force, and hence getting control of the training facility in the process. 

The signs were promising, however. It looked it was possible to get onto the planet, as the First Order lacked the strength to control all travel in and out, but the facility and ruling palace of the planet was obviously guarded tight. It could be possible for a smaller team to get in there, but they agreed to put it off until they had checked it out themselves. Relying on second-hand sources could be dangerous, as the First Order could be feeding them information to lure them into a trap, knowing the Resistance was hitting snuffing them out everywhere they could.

Outside of that, progress had been good. The planet of Mygeeto had been liberated from First Order control, who had been looking into mining out kyber crystals from there to be used in an unknown project. Cutting that off was a major victory for the resistance, as stopping the remnants of the First Order from having the ability to produce more weapons of mass destruction was of the utmost importance. The mission to liberate Mygeeto had been planned by Finn in the past few weeks, and it had been a success. They had suffered no losses, while forcing the First Order troops to stand down after overthrowing the local government.

At the end of the day, Finn felt good. Work was going well. It was very different to step into the role of general, but he felt like he was getting a better grasp of it. And privately, things were looking up. He didn’t know exactly what he and Rey was yet, but he was excited and happy to find out with her. And Rey was his first plan after work. He returned to his and Poe’s room, finding that Zorii had the decency to open the window before she left, so it smelled less in there. He quickly changed, then jogged out to the small open area near the practice course, where they had usually met up to work on the force together. As usual, he saw her sitting there with her legs crossed, meditating as he arrived. She looked so peaceful when she sat like that, like all her worries were gone.

Finn sat down to her left, then spoke. “Hey.” He said calmly.

Rey’s eyes opened up, and she smiled at hearing Finn. “Hey.” She responded.

“So, what’s the plan for today?” Finn asked her, as they hadn’t really discussed it.

“Well, we didn’t do anything yesterday, so I figured we would resume levitation, just this time we go bigger.” Rey said excitedly. Wanting to see Finn be put to a proper test.

“How big we talking?” Finn asked. 

“Do you remember that one boulder on the other side of the lake?” Rey asked him.

“That big?” Finn asked, surprised he was being asked to lift something of that size. The boulder was easily the size of two R2s, so it wouldn't be easy.

“Exactly that big, you’re lifting that one.” Rey confirmed. “Come on, let’s head over there.” She said, jumping up to her legs and waving for Finn to come with.

Once they got there, Finn tried to lift it, but nothing was happening. “Rey, I can’t lift this, it’s too heavy.” 

Rey chuckled a bit. He was making the same rookie mistake she had been doing, thinking too hard about how big and difficult it looked, thinking like she would if she were lifting it by hand. “Finn, do you remember what I told you when we first starting working on lifting things?”

“Yes, I do. ‘Size doesn’t matter’. But that was going from pebbles to some bigger rocks. This is a boulder, Rey.” Finn said, not seeing how he could lift that.

“Finn, it still applies. Forget how big or heavy it looks. You’re not lifting it with your hands, so don’t think like you are. Focus, do exactly like you did with the rocks and the pebbles, and will this thing off the ground. You can do it, I promise.”

“Okay, I’ll try.” Finn said. He then closed his eyes, and reached out, focusing on the boulder. After a few seconds, the boulder started to move slightly, and little by little, he was able to lift it slightly off the ground.

“Great work Finn!” Rey said excitedly, happy to see him succeed. “Now, try to see if you can move it slightly further away, slowly.”

Finn did as she said, and moved it slowly away, but then started to lose control of it, with the boulder landing on the ground with a big oomph.

“Ah, fuck.” Finn said, frustrated with himself.

“Hey, don’t be down. You lifted that thing, and even moved it a bit. You did great Finn. A few minutes ago, you didn’t believe you could move it at all, but you did.” Rey said, giving him some well earned praise. He had a habit of expecting too much of himself too soon, so she wanted to make sure he knew that he was doing well.

“Yeah, you’re right, I saw some of the stuff you did, and I want to be able to at least do some of it.” Finn said, showing the standards he was aiming for.

“Hey, if you keep progressing like this, then you will be able to eventually. Just don’t spend too much time comparing yourself to me or anyone else, you’re doing well, and you’re progressing, that’s all that matters. I’m proud of your progress, Finn.” Rey said, reassuring him that things were going great so far in his training. “Now, why don’t we go meditate for a while, and then we’re done for today, okay?” 

“Okay, that sounds good” Finn replied.

The pair walked over to the other side of the lake, where there were some more grassy areas that were nicer to sit on. They sat down a meter apart, facing each other like they usually did when meditating. 

Sitting there with their eyes closed, they could feel so much around them. They felt the living, breathing nature of the planet, the fish in the deeper parts of the lake, the birds in the trees, and the insects, living in harmony. And they felt things from base. They felt people they recognized, like Poe, Chewbacca, Zorii, Rose, and many others. Each had their distinctive signature that could be detected if you focused, as Rey had taught him in one of their first lessons after they got back. And they could sense each other, both now radiating positive, happy energy. Finn finally couldn’t help but open his eyes, and just look at her in her peaceful state again. She was so pretty, he thought to himself, so positive about life. She didn’t give up on anyone, no matter what. She didn’t give up on him either, after he made a fool of himself. And she loved him, like he loved her. 

“Finn, you’re not focused.” Rey said to him, breaking him from his thoughts and staring.

“Uh, sorry, didn’t mean to.” Finn said, feeling bad about looking at her like that.

“It’s okay that you’re looking at me, you know. I like it, it makes me feel much better about myself when you look at me like that.” Rey said, just to make sure he knew that she in no way was annoyed by it.

“I can’t help it sometimes, sorry.” Finn said.

“It’s alright Finn. I like looking at you too you know. But just not right now, we can do that later. For now, focus.” Rey said, wanting them to actually get something done.

“Alright, alright. I will.” Finn said, conceding that they had to do something.

“Okay, now. You can feel the area surrounding us, but try to reach further. See if you can reach a different planet, if you can. What about Jannah, where is she right now? See if you can find her.” Rey suggested, wanting to push Finn a bit.

“Okay, Jannah. She’s off with Lando, but I don’t know where. I wouldn’t really know where to look.” Finn said, unsure if he could do that. 

“You recognize her though. Reach out, try to push your boundaries, and you might just find her.” Rey said, trying to reassure him that it was possible.

Finn took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and focused. After a little while, he finally spoke. “I think I might have something.” 

“Oh?” Rey asked, she hadn’t tried to reach out herself, wanting him to find out himself.

“I sense something on Garel that seems like her, but I’m not sure.” Finn said, not completely trusting his instinct in the force just yet.

“I can check for you, if you want me to?” Rey asked, not wanting to check if he didn’t want her to.

“Sure, go ahead.” Finn said, wanting to be sure that he got it right.

Rey focused, and reached out all the way to Garel. 30 seconds later, she opened her eyes again. “Yeah, she’s on Garel with Lando. Nice work Finn!” She said with joy, her smile beaming at how well Finn had done, having reached so far to find Jannah. 

“Thanks, kind of impressed with myself for actually finding her, it’s hard when you don’t even know where to start.” Finn said, pleased with himself.

“You should be, what you just did wasn’t easy. Very few people can do that, but you did it. I’m really proud of how you’re doing, Finn.” Rey said, again making sure he knew how well he was doing. 

“Thank you, I have an amazing teacher, makes it a lot easier for me.” Finn said, trying to flatter her.

“Well, I have an amazing student, that accepts all the weird drills I tell him to do. It’s a miracle that this has been going so well, especially when I really want to kiss him half the time.” Rey said, sensing his flirting tone, and giving some right back.

“Flirting with your student, Rey? Isn’t that a bit inappropriate?” Finn joked in return. 

“Can’t help it, I can see big arms all the time, and his thick ass. And his face when he focuses hard on his meditation is just distracting.” Rey said, continuing to flirt, this time being more visual about it.

“You should have seen my teacher then, she is fine. When she turns around, I can’t help but look at her ass, and she is so, so pretty, with her beautiful smile and cute hairstyle. It’s really distracting.” Finn said, openly stating his desire for her to see how she would respond. It was bold, but he felt comfortable with her, despite them truly just beginning a proper relationship the day prior.

Rey’s face flushed from hearing that, but wouldn’t let herself be beaten like that. “Well, I went swimming with my student the other day, and he undressed in front of me. His muscles were just…wow, he is hot. I wanted to jump him right then and there.” Rey said, practically thirsting over him now.

Finn couldn’t stand this anymore, and finally conceded. “Oh come here.” He just said, then practically leaped over to her from his sitting position, his mouth crashing against hers. Rey fell over backwards from the impact, her back now pressed against the ground. Finn straddled her instantly, and resumed the kiss, demanding access into her mouth, which she gladly granted. He was heavy, but his body pressed against hers felt so good. She could feel his muscled chest pressed against hers, his groin pressed against her, with his excitement evident, and his soft lips and tongue dancing a beautiful tango with hers. It felt so right, so good.

Eventually, she flipped him over, wanting to have some control herself. She straddled him, and Finn placed his hands on her butt, giving it a good squeeze. Unfazed, Rey bent down and kissed him on the mouth again, and resuming their dance. After a bit, she felt bold, and pulled away, producing a whine from Finn. She then kissed his neck, and based on the sounds Finn made, he liked it. She decided to experiment, and sucked a bit on it, producing more noises.

Eventually, she moved back up to his mouth, and they continued making it out, neither wanting to stop, despite gradually feeling like they had to breathe soon. Soon, they separated to breathe a bit, with Rey resting her head on his chest. Once they regained their breath, she rolled off him, laying beside him, both smiling from ear to ear. They could get used to spending practice like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a longer chapter this time, but I didn't feel like slicing it in half made sense.


	22. Sleeping Habits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey are used to sleeping very differently, yet somehow, together, it works.

When they had initially started sleeping in the same bed, Finn had been unsure about it. He had seen how Rey slept, she moved a lot, with a lot of limbs moving around the place, like she was restless, and plagued with nightmares, though it had been less after Exegol. In addition, she was used to sleeping alone, it was all she had ever known before she joined the Resistance. And even there, she had been allowed to sleep alone after a short while. Meanwhile, Finn was used to sleeping flat on his back, quietly, after years of only sleeping like that in the First Order in rooms with lots of people. He had nightmares himself, but he didn’t move much, it just showed on his face, and he would wake up with his eyes shooting open like a silent scream.

Trying to combine those different styles of sleeping seemed like it wouldn’t work to Finn. Yet when they first did it after Rey asked him so she would be calmer, it had worked. She was right. With him wrapped around her, she was calmer. She slept quietly, peacefully, like her instinct to fight in her sleep wasn’t needed with him there. And her nightmares were less of a problem, because her mind recognized his touch even in her sleep, so she knew what was real and what wasn’t. And then her dreams weren’t so scary.

But it wasn’t just how much or little they moved that was different between them, but what they wore while sleeping. Finn was used to sleeping dressed in his underwear. He had done that all of his life, and had continued to after he became part of the Resistance. When he had slept over in Rey’s room, however, he had decided to wear at least a shirt, even though he wasn’t used to that. Rey, in the meantime was used to the exact opposite. On Jakku, she had slept clothed, due to the lack of blankets or covers there. Yes, the days were scorching hot, but the nights were cold, and without any covers in a cold AT-AT, she had to sleep with her clothes on. After getting to Ajan Kloss, she realized that she couldn’t keep doing that. Even at night, the planet was too warm, and too moist to sleep with her clothes still on. Besides, she had gotten used to showering now, a luxury she never had in the past. Now, sleeping with the clothes she had worn during the day wasn’t so appealing. The compromise she had made with herself was to sleep with an oversized shirt on.

But after a while, she had started to change her habits. First, it was the change from sleeping full dressed, to getting a sleep shirt. Then, she started adjust how she treated food, not treating it like it would be stolen from her. And now, with Finn wrapped around her, she was starting to wonder if the shirt was really necessary. It was warm already, and with them wrapped together like this, it was even warmer. And in her mind, she couldn’t help but replay the visuals of their bathing trip, and the feeling of his hands on her body from swimming lessons months prior. So, a few days after they had gotten together, Rey decided to ask after they had gone to bed for the night.

“Finn, I was wondering, would it be okay if I took off my shirt?” She asked him tentatively.

“Yeah, of course. Okay if I take off mine?” Finn asked in return, gladly letting her sleep with less clothes on if she wanted to. If he was being honest with himself, he wanted her to himself. He loved how it felt to hold her, how soft her skin was despite her time on Jakku, and how she seemed to let go of everything in his arms. 

“Sure.” Rey said, then slipped out of bed. 

“Honestly, I’m used to sleeping without a shirt on anyway.” Finn said, in the interest of honesty.

“I…I haven’t really done it. I always slept with my clothes on at Jakku. I’ve slept with a little less on since we got here, but I haven’t really tried without at least this on.” Rey admitted.

“You don’t have to do it for my sake, you know.” Finn said, not wanting to pressure her into something she wasn’t comfortable with.

“I want to. I want to at least try it, see if I like it.” Rey said, feeling like giving it a shot. To make her point, she took off the shirt right then and there in front of him. A while back she might have felt shy about undressing like this, showing her body wasn’t something she had ever done, but she had seen the looks he had given her during their bathing trips, and she had felt how he held her when they slept, how he had held her butt during their kissing. If he liked it, then that was good enough for her.

Upon seeing this, Finn was awestruck yet again. Even in the darkness of their room, she was mesmerizing. He could see her abs, the shape of her breasts underneath the wraps, and her long, fit legs with her lovely ass clear as day. He couldn’t help but stare at her, like she was some kind of angel. Seeing him look like that made Rey flush red, but she was also happy she had that effect on him. 

Finn then slipped out of bed himself, and pulled off his shirt. Rey gladly returned the favour, and looked at him like he was a piece of candy. His fantastically sculpted muscles, a stomach to match hers, and his big arms. Seeing him like this in front of her had Rey practically licking her chops, at least in her mind. He had called her fine himself, but he was no worse she thought to herself. Despite their mutual staring, they both hesitated to move further. Finn finally leaned forwards and gave her a peck on the mouth, before going back to bed. Rey then joined him, and they positioned themselves like they had gotten used to, with Finn as the big spoon, and her as the little spoon.


	23. I Want You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey wakes up to the feeling of Finn's hardness pressed against her butt. She decides to make the most of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where the explicit rating comes in handy. If you don't enjoy explicit sexual content, then this isn't the chapter for you, and I advice you to wait until next chapter. If you do however like it or otherwise read it, then feel free to continue.

The next morning, Rey woke up first for once. Finn was still sleeping, his arms around her, holding her tightly even in his sleep. She could feel his body pressed against hers, finally just skin against skin, and she felt herself getting aroused. She could feel that he was hard, and pressed lightly against her butt. He probably didn’t mean to, and if he knew he probably would feel bad, but Rey, still remembering the night before, and enjoying how it felt to be pressed against him like this, decided to make the most of it. Slowly, she started moving her butt, rubbing against him. He was mildly hard when she began, but after a bit, he was rock hard, and she could feel him hard against her, making her even more horny.

After a bit, Finn woke up, and felt how hard he was, and noticed how he was pressed against her. “Oh shit, Rey, I’m so sorry.” He said, waking up rapidly in pure embarrassment, moving a bit away from her.

“No Finn, please, come back. I liked it. _A lot_.” Rey said while turning around to face him., wanting him to keep being close to her.

“You…do?” Finn said, a bit surprised at her not being mad about him for it. 

“Yes, Finn. It felt good. So please, touch me. I want you to.” Rey said, reassuring him that it was more than just okay.

Finn shuffled back to her while Rey turned back around, with wrapping his arms around her again, pressing himself against her backside. Rey then resumed what she was doing, and rubbed herself against him. Finn, really liking the feeling, decided to join in, the two rubbing against each other. 

After a bit, Finn felt emboldened by her actions, and started to move his hands more. He touched along her stomach, feeling her muscles, and moved upwards, towards her breastband. Rey felt what he was doing, and got excited, so she turned around to face him again.

“Finn, do you want to?” She asked him, wanting to ask permission since she started this while he was still asleep.

“I do, yes. I really do.” Finn said without hesitation.

“Have you ever, you know, done this before?” Rey asked a bit nervously.

“No, I haven’t. The order didn’t exactly encourage interpersonal relationships of any kind, anyone discovered in doing it was never seen again.” Finn said truthfully. Even if he ever wanted to, which he hadn’t, it still wasn’t worth the risk.

“Oh Finn, I’m so sorry.” Rey said, looking him right in the eyes with a sad look.

“What about you, have you?” Finn asked tentatively, wanting to move on from his own experience, or lack thereof. 

“No, I haven’t. I was offered, a few times, but declined. Others wanted to as payment for certain things, but I refused. Some tried to do it by force, but I managed to fight them off.” Rey said, detailing how gruesome Jakku had really been. 

“Rey, I’m so sorry.” Finn said, then pulled her in for a tight hug.

“It’s okay, really. I don’t want the past to ruin what I have now, what we have. I want to, with you.” Rey said, not allowing herself to be dragged down by her past. 

“I want it too.” Finn said, making her know that he was comfortable with it. In a way it was comforting, that they both could freely explore and try out things, coming into this like an unpainted canvas.

“Yeah?” Rey said, pulling away from the hug to look him in the eyes.

“Yeah.” Finn replied, before capturing her lips with his again. Then, glancing over at the clock, Finn panicked and pulled away from her. “Fuck, I need to go.” He muttered.

“Finn, wait. You have the day off, remember?” Rey said, reminding him about something he had clearly forgotten.

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Finn said. He remembered, once Rey reminded him. He had a long-awaited day off from work. He had argued to Poe that he had been gone for a few days anyway, so he didn’t need it, but Poe had brushed him off and told him to take it anyway. 

“Come back here.” Rey said, and pulled him down with her so he was laying on top of her. With thoughts of work far out of his mind again, he resumed where he left off, and started to kiss her. They started with what they already knew and had gotten comfortable with, making out, this time filled with a lot of want and excitement. They kissed each other like it was out of pure hunger, they wanted _more_. As a result, Finn stopped kissing her, producing a whine from Rey, before starting to move down. Rey had left a good mark on his throat the other day, so he felt like it was his duty to repay her for that. He started kissing her there, and Rey made sounds indicating that she definitely enjoyed that. Replicating what she had done to him, he then decided to suck hard on her skin there, making sure he left a good mark. People had seen his mark, so now it was his time to mark Rey as his. 

Continuing to move down, he kissed her strong shoulders, then traced his way downwards. He reached her breastband, then stopped. He wanted to touch her there too, but didn’t want to force her if she didn’t want to. Rey, distracted by the good feeling of him kissing her while she closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling, noticed that Finn had stopped. She looked down, and saw a face that was virtually a question mark. 

“Is it okay if you take that off? I really want to see you.” Finn asked her, seeking her permission.

“Yeah, that’s okay.” Rey said. Rey had never been too focused on her breasts. She knew that they were supposed to be a sensitive area, but hadn’t ever really enjoyed touching herself there. She also knew that it was supposed to be an area lots of men were attracted too, but she had never grown much in the area, so she didn’t see it as anything worth showing off. Nor were they really big enough to ever be an inconvenience, so it had certain bonuses, she had thought to herself in the past. In all, she didn’t really see it as anything she was proud of, but she had noticed how Finn had looked at her the second time they went swimming, when her wet breastband had revealed quite a bit. That was when she truly knew that Finn wanted her _bad_. And when he wanted to see her that much, she couldn’t resist him. 

Finn rolled off her, to let her stand up to properly take it off. Standing beside the bed, she started to unwrap it, with Finn looking on excitedly. When she finally got it all off, Finn was looking at her, like he was analysing her. Seeing his look, she started to feel a bit self-conscious and covered them with her arms. She knew they weren’t big, or what was typically found appealing, but she had hoped that he wouldn’t be let down by her. 

“Rey, you’re beautiful.” Finn said, sensing her insecurity. “Please don’t cover yourself, you are perfect Rey. I mean it. I want to touch you, kiss you. All of you.” He continued, hoping to make her feel better. 

Rey silently agreed. She thought he was exaggerating by calling her perfect, but once she uncovered herself, he looked at her with that look of his, of pure hunger. He loved what he was seeing. No, they weren’t big, but they looked fantastic, and he desperately wanted her back on the bed again with him so he could touch them. He reached out his hand, and Rey took it, laying back down again so he could resume his journey. He resumed just where he had left off, kissing right above her breasts, before starting to kiss the top of them. Soon enough, he found himself where he wanted to go, and kissed her right nipple. He then sucked on it a bit, producing some approving noises from Rey. While doing that, he reached out his left hand and started feeling out her other breast. Being both suckled and massaged at the same time, Rey realized why this was a thing. It felt _good_ when Finn was doing it.

Finn was glad that she liked it as much as he did, so decided to swap, moving his hands to the right, and mouth to the left. Rey kept on making those satisfied noises, her back bending slightly, lifting off the ground. Finn’s mouth on her was good, _really_ good. But she didn’t want Finn to just make _her_ feel good, she wanted him to feel good too. Showing her strength, she flipped them over, her on top of him.

Rey decided to copy him right away, and went straight for his muscled chest, kissing it, feeling his muscles with both her hands and her mouth. This was the first time she had properly had the chance to touch him. She had felt him before, obviously, but it was Finn who had become the big spoon in bed, and their previous kissing had been while clothed. Now, she had all of him underneath her, right at her fingertips and mouth. And it was good, really good. His skin tasted like sweat, but she didn’t mind, because it was _his_ sweat. It tasted like Finn, _her_ Finn. 

She then traced her hands down his stomach, feeling his abs, feeling him tighten them even further to show off a bit. Rey laughed a bit at that, then continued to move down. Her fingers reached the waistband of his briefs, and she looked up at him, questioningly. Finn nodded, then lifted up his hips, allowing Rey to pull off the briefs. They were now beyond anything any of them had ever done. Up until now, it had all been kissing, touching. Now, she had all of him. Rey looked down at him, completely rock hard already. This was what had started this, Rey thought to herself. She had felt him through his briefs, and now she could see it, touch it. And there was a lot of him, he was bigger than she had imagined, not really knowing what to expect. Rey started to touch him hesitantly, not really knowing what he would like. She noticed that Finn liked it when she held it, and pulled up and down, so she decided to do more of that.

Gradually, Rey started to move her hands a bit. She changed up the pace, hearing how Finn was gradually breathing heavier. In curiosity, she decided to place a kiss on the tip, and based on Finn’s reaction, it was a sensitive area, but she hoped it was good. She then continued to jerk him off, with Finn now breathing harder and harder. Finally, Finn said something. 

“Rey, stop.” He muttered out of breath.

“You don’t like it?” Rey asked him, not really sure if she had done a good thing or not.

“I liked it, a lot, but if you continue, I won’t last.” Finn said, not wanting this to stop just yet. 

“Oh, okay.” Rey said, understanding what he meant. 

“Can I?” Finn asked, nodding down towards her underwear.

“Yeah.” Rey said, then rolled off Finn to lay on her back again.

Finn turned himself around, then sat on his knees in front of Rey, who lifted her hips up so Finn could remove her underwear. Finn slowly pulled it off and tossed it aside, then looked down at her opening. Finn had an idea about what to do, but wasn’t really sure. So, like they had done with everything else, he decided to experiment, seeing what she responded to. He laid down between her legs, and placed a kiss across her opening. Rey didn’t respond much to it, but he could feel how wet she was. Experimentally, he put his mouth to the opening again, and stuck his tongue in. He moved it around a bit, and felt the taste of her in his mouth. It was unlike everything he had ever tasted. It wasn’t a great taste, nor was it bad, but it was _Rey_. 

Enjoying the feel of licking her, he tried to rub his tongue against her walls, and from the sounds she made in return, it was good. He continued licking, and Rey started to moan in pleasure, bucking her hips a bit, making Finn’s face press against her even more than it already was. Finn chuckled a bit at that, and continued. He felt her hands in his hair now, holding him in place, and he decided to move faster. In return, she clamped her legs together, so he was truly stuck. 

“Ahh, Finn, like that.” Rey moaned out, with Finn licking her as fast as he could. She was clamping him even harder now, and he could feel the strength in her thighs holding him in place. Then suddenly, like coming to her senses, she let him loose and spoke.

“Finn, please, stop.” She muttered out.

“Too much?” Finn asked, pushing himself back up on his knees.

“No, but I want you. I want you inside of me Finn.” Rey said, knowing exactly what she wanted.

“You sure?” Finn asked, just to be sure she knew what she was saying.

“Yes, Finn. I want you, please.” Rey said, practically begging for him now. Just making him stop had taken all of her willpower, so she didn’t want it to end for long. 

Finn had no argument against it, naturally. He wanted her so, so bad. He had dreamt about this, being with her, and now she was lying there naked and even more beautiful than he had imagined in front of him, asking him. Finn slipped out of bed, thinking it would be at an ideal height, and gestured for Rey to turn around to face the edge of the bed, which she did. He then grabbed his cock, and steered it towards her entrance. He stopped right before, looking at her as if asking for permission. She smiled and nodded. She was sure. Finn then bent his face down, and kissed her, deeply. She could feel a different taste on his lips now, the taste of herself, she realized. Previously, that thought might have been disgusting to her, but now, tasting herself on his lips, she loved it. She kissed him back with passion, before they both let go.

Finn then moved the tip toward her entrance, and rubbed it a bit along the entrance, not entering just yet. He then lined himself up, and slowly entered her with just the tip. Rey felt her breath catch for a moment. This was different. She had touched herself before, obviously, and Finn had put his tongue in her, but this was something else. It felt odd. Intrusive, even. It was like a foreign object had gotten in there. But she still wanted it. Finn noticed her breath stopping for a moment, and stopped moving.

“Rey, are you okay? Do you want me to stop?” He asked her, still his caring self no matter how much he wanted to push on.

“Yes, I’m okay. It’s just…different. Go slow, I’ll get used to it.” Rey said, not wanting him to stop. She appreciated that he asked, never wanting to push her too far.

Getting the go-ahead, Finn slowly pushed further into her. He felt how tight she was, how her sides were clutching at his cock. But he also felt her wetness. It was tight, but still smooth. He pushed further, until he bottomed out. With him completely sheathed, he looked at Rey, who had flinched slightly as he pushed in, but she seemed to be doing better.

“Want me to continue?” He asked again.

“Yes, please. It feels odd, but good at the same time. You don’t need to ask me that much, Finn. I trust you.” Rey responded. She wanted more. She knew it was something she had to get used to, but she was sure she would if they just continued.

Slowly, Finn pulled out again, exiting completely. He then placed himself at the entrance again, and pushed in, still slowly, before repeating the process. He was looking at her the whole time, reading her face. She looked less in pain, like she was getting used to him now. Finn still felt her walls tight on him, but it felt good.

“Try a little faster.” Rey said after the third time.

Wordlessly, Finn obliged, moving faster. He pushed deeper into her, seeing how she responded. He heard a moan in response, with no real sign of pain, so he decided to continue, pumping in and out of her, feeling her tight pussy around him as fucked into her wet opening. 

“Faster.” Rey said, and he upped the pace further, setting a good pace as he fucked into her, never exiting properly and bottoming her out time after time, and Rey started to move her hips in return, soon settling into a shared rhythm.

“You feel so good Rey.” Finn said in between breaths, the feeling of Rey around him and his movement making him breathe heavier and heavier.

“More, Finn, more.” Rey muttered, she herself breathing just as heavily. By now, the feeling of pain was completely gone, there was only pleasure, Finn felt great inside of her. He filled her up perfectly, like it was the only place he had ever belonged.

Suddenly, they both felt something in the force. They felt…each other, the other person’s pleasure, as if their connection in the force was being intertwined with their now physical connection. Rey could feel Finn’s pure feeling of pleasure and joy, and Finn could feel hers. They looked each other right in the eyes, while Finn continued fucking into her. 

After a bit, Finn felt the pressure increasing, like it had when Rey had jerked him off. He closed his eyes, the pressure starting to become too much. “Rey, I’m close.” He managed to say, before he pumped a few last times and pulled out of her. He aimed to the side, and spilled his seed out on the sheets, his still eyes closed in pure pleasure, only letting out an “Ahhh” in relief. He knew enough to know what could happen if he hadn’t pulled out, and since they hadn’t talked about it, he didn’t want to risk it. Rey, close to being done herself, fingered herself at the sight of Finn climaxing, and a few seconds later she climaxed herself with a loud moan. 

“That was….unbelievable..” Rey managed to say after a little while, needing to even out her breath before speaking.

“Yeah, that was amazing..” Finn said in response, still struggling a bit to get his mind around it all.

They had both felt good before, pleasuring themselves, and felt good with the other person doing it for them. But the feeling of him inside of her, of her walls holding onto him tightly as he pumped into her, and the two of them entwined, connected both physically and through the force, was beyond anything they had ever experienced before. It was truly the best they had ever felt, and they couldn’t wait to do more of it. After waiting this long in their lives, it was such a relief that it felt amazing, and that it happened with a person they truly loved and adored. 

Rey turned herself a bit, and shuffled in, allowing Finn some space. Finn basically collapsed beside her, face first into the pillow. They then laid facing each other, looking into each other’s eyes. It didn’t matter that they had to change the sheets now, that could wait. For now, they just looked at each other. Finn looked at Rey, and she was glowing, with a smile of pure happiness. She was tired, but happy. Rey looked at him back, seeing his body shine from sweat, but with him looking so happy. A happiness she had only seen in him after he finally kissed her, one he hadn’t shown anyone else, ever. There was no relief, no hidden pain. Only happiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to clarify a few things regarding the direction I took this chapter. My headcanon for the two is that both are virgins. That isn't because I necessarily believe in a perfect first time, just one partner, or anything like that, but because I struggle to see a scenario where either had sex previously. I seriously doubt the First Order would allow it, and Finn, a model soldier up until Jakku, most likely wouldn't be doing that sort of thing regardless. Rey on the other hand would probably have offers to do it due to her looks, some less nice about it than others, but I doubt she would accept any of them.
> 
> With that established, the challenge was to write two people have have never done it. I decided to go with them gradually exploring more through what they had already done so far, namely kissing and touching. So basically it turned into a longer foreplay, with the two of them just trying to figure out what the other person likes. And eventually, they did it, with them moving gradually faster as Rey got used to it. As a result of that direction, it probably isn't the tastiest scene ever written, but I had to go with what made sense in the context I have written so far. :)
> 
> PS: I hope this was the escalation you wanted, Pan! :D


	24. Passing the Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Finn busy with work, Rey is forced to find something to do to pass the time. Finn decides to surprise her when he's off early on day, but overhears some resistance members talking about Rey, and decides to do something about it.

The week following their first night together had been rather stressful. The Resistance had escalated their off-planet missions, managing to eliminate First Order cells on Naboo, and the previously Resistance friendly Aeos Prime. That had meant that Finn spent most of his days at work, planning the attacks to overthrow the First Order friendly governments, and while Poe had worked on tracking down potential hidden cells on the planets. Both missions had been extremely successful, but had left little time for anything else.

Finn’s lack of time had given Rey a problem. Her time had pretty much revolved around Finn for a while now. She had her alone time from whenever she decided to wake up until the afternoon, when Finn usually finished up. The time had usually been spent reading, keeping in shape and working on her own Force training while planning out her afternoon session with Finn. In the past week, Finn had been working all day, meaning that they hadn’t been able to spend any time together before Finn got back late, at which point he usually fell asleep right away.

To get the days to move, Rey had tried to think of ways to pass the time. There was only one problem. She didn’t really have any hobbies. Jakku wasn’t a place for hobbies. And ever since she discovered her force powers, she had been training all day long. She had finally been able to step down the training a bit, and wasn’t interested in resuming full day sessions unless strictly needed. After a day she realized what she had done the most of between Crait and Exegol, but hadn’t done much of since: repairs. With the Falcon currently stuck on the ground and in good condition, it didn’t really need any, unlike when it was being used for missions every week out of necessity. 

Rey walked out of the Falcon, not knowing what to do. But then she saw the answer to her problems. Luke’s X-Wing. It had been standing there ever since she got back from Exegol. The thing was obviously water damaged after being dumped in an ocean for years. That it had even been flyable after all that time was a miracle to begin with, the engineers that made it must have been remarkable, but it was just barely working. It was the answer to her problems.

She spent the second day looking at the engine. It had been misfiring slightly, so Rey decided to open it up completely. As it turns out, there was rust damage there, and certain parts were filled with water. Luckily, the Resistance were using a newer model of the X-Wing, so the parts weren’t all that different. Rey was able to find spares she needed, then went about putting them in. It was difficult without knowing the ship in and out, but she was clever enough to fix it within a few days.

A day after fixing the engine she moved onto the cockpit and Astromech holder. While she was working on the astromech holder while laying on top of the ship, head down in the, R2-D2 showed up, beeping at her.

“Oh hey R2.” Rey said, popping her head up from there.

R2-D2 beeped some more. 

“Oh, BB-8 let you know I was working on it? You know this model?” Rey asked in response.

R2 beeped in confirmation.

“Oh, you used to fly this with Luke?”

R2 beeped excitedly, recalling all of the memories it had in that ship, telling how it knew it in and out.

“Oh, you can run diagnostics on it? That’d be great. I just changed the connection port in your slot here, so this is perfect timing really.” Rey said, happy to get some help. She loved working with the droids, given how nice they were, and how they always remained loyal to their friends. R2 was a legend in the Resistance, so he was allowed to move around wherever it wanted to, and do pretty much whatever it wanted to. She had talked a bit with R2 during the first trip to Ahch-To, but not much since, so it was good to be talking again.

Rey moved out of the way, and R2 boosted himself up using the rocket boosters, and then connected itself into the system to run the diagnostics. After a bit, R2 discovered that the weapons system was broken, and probably needed to be replaced. Rey agreed with R2 that they would fix it the next day, as it was getting late. The next day, they met up again, with Rey working on it while R2 watched on, telling stories of how Luke had fixed it in the past. Rey reminded R2 of Luke, so he was glad to spend time with her.

Late in the afternoon, Finn finally got off work, a few hours earlier than in the past few days. He was hoping to head back to Rey’s room, to finally spend some time with her. He had missed her a lot in the past week. They had eaten together once a day, and seen each other at night, but not nearly as much as either of them had wanted to. As he walked out the door to leave, he was met by C-3PO. 

“General Finn! How fortunate I met you here!” C-3PO exclaimed.

“Hello C-3PO, nice to see you too. You looking for me?”

“Yes General, I came from Miss Rey! She wanted me to tell you that she would be quite late. Miss Rey is working on Luke’s X-Wing with R2-D2. Oh, it is so good to see R2 out and doing something again, I was beginning to worry he would not do anything after Princess Leia died.” C-3PO said excitedly.

“Yeah, it’s good to see R2 out and about, it’s no good to stand that much still, even for you droids. Thanks, 3PO.” Finn said, giving 3PO a clap on the shoulder before walking past him and out of the room. 

Finn then walked out of the command centre, heading towards the hangar area. On the way there, he heard two men talking, and decided to stop nearby to listen after hearing what they were talking about.

“Hey, you seen who’s been hanging out here recently?” The first man asked the other. He was a male mechanic, seemingly in his mid-20s, with light skin and dark brown hair.

“No? I just got back from Naboo.” The other one responded. This one was a male pilot of similar age, with yellow-ish blonde hair.

“Rey.” The mechanic said.

“The Rey?” The pilot asked, not really believing him.

“Yup, the Rey. She’s been working on this X-Wing, looks practically ancient.” The brunette confirmed.

“Holy shit, haven’t seen her here in a while. Thought she had left after Exegol.” The blonde said.

“Well, she’s here. And thank whatever forces there are out there that she is.” The mechanic said.

“Oh, how so? She’s not out there fighting or currently helping us, is she?” The pilot asked, not sure what the pilot was referring to.

“No, but she sure makes my days better. Like, have you seen her? She is hot. Seeing her all sweaty and bent over with her ass facing this way on top of that ship is a sight to behold.” The mechanic said, detailing how he had been looking at her while she was working. Hearing this got Finn’s blood boiling. 

“Yeah, she really is.” The pilot said, turning around to look over at her.

“Thinking of asking her out actually. Can you imagine that? Me with the hottest girl in the Resistance? Fuck, that’d be so great. Just imagine her in bed, given how much she works out.” The mechanic said, detailing even more how he was thinking of her.

“Hah, you wish.” The pilot responded, not believing it would go anywhere near like he hoped.

Finn had heard enough. As much as he wanted to see Rey reject him in front of his friend, he wouldn’t let anyone move in on what was his. He and Rey hadn’t exactly announced anything to anyone. Poe, Zorii, Chewie and BB-8 had an idea about what was going on, but that was it. Nor had they really talked about what they were just yet. But he knew it wasn’t anything casual. They had only done it once, but it wasn’t a one-night stand, they were serious. She was his, and he was hers. He had no doubt about that, and it was time to fend off this idiot for good. Part of him wanted to confront him directly, but he got a better idea. 

Popping out from behind the corner he had been hiding, he walked past them like he no idea what they had been talking about, and they didn’t seem to pay him much mind, despite his standing in the Resistance. He walked over to Rey, who was standing with her back turned, working on one of the cannons, with R2 inside the ship. Rey sensed him walking up, and turned around to greet him.

“Finn!” She said with joy. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you working?”

Finn didn’t respond, and walked right up to her, reaching his hand out for the back of her head and pulling her in for a kiss, which Rey gladly returned. They separated a while later, both grinning ear to ear. Finn could sense the mechanic and the pilot having seen what happened, both shocked at what they had seen. 

“Finn, kissing me here..wow.” Rey said, surprised he was willing to show his affection in public like this.

“Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. I heard those two guys over there talking about you, had to make sure they knew to stay away.” Finn said.

“Finn! Are you jealous?” Rey said, jokingly pushing him.

“Nah, just protecting my territory. Can’t let other guys hit on what’s mine.” Finn said, showing a slightly possessive side of him.

“I’m yours Finn, and you are mine.” Rey said, not minding it at all. She had no intention to ever let any other guy hit on her again, but Finn sparing her the trouble was fine too. And if any girls wanted hit on Finn, she would let them know too.

“I love you Rey.” Finn said.

“Love you too, Finn.” Rey responded. They then went in for a second kiss, not minding the PDA one bit.

After they separated again, Finn spoke. “To answer your question, I’m done for the day, thankfully. Wanted to see you, feels like we haven’t gotten any time together for a while now.” 

“Oh, that’s great. I have a bit left, but you can help out or watch and talk with me if you want?” Rey said, wanting to hang out, but also wanting to be done with the weapons system before she finished up for the day. 

“How about I go grab us some food from the cantina, and then I’ll be back so we can eat?” Finn suggested. Rey would often be a bit too focused on working on things, forgetting to eat out of sheer habit from not being able to eat as often previously, so he wanted to look out for her now that he could.

“Yeah, that’d be great! Can you get some fruit too?” Rey said eagerly. She had taken a liking to trying out the different fruits the Resistance had imported, so she grabbed a new one every now and then to try it out.

“Yeah, sure thing. I’ll be back in a minute.” Finn said, then turned around to walk away. On his way out from the hangar area, he demonstratively walked past the mechanic and pilot he had eavesdropped on earlier, shooting the mechanic a look of disdain. He wanted him to know that he knew. 

The pilot saw the look Finn gave the mechanic, and could barely hold in his laugh. “Oh shit dude, you’ve gotten yourself in the General’s naughty book now. Good luck with that one! And good luck trying to ask out Rey, seems he’s way ahead of you there!” The pilot said as soon as Finn got a bit further away, punching the mechanic in the upper arm before walking off, still laughing. The mechanic only stood there; jaw nearly dropped to the floor. He was fucked, he thought to himself.


	25. Definitions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Poe realize that it's time they define their respective relationships with Rey and Zorii. BB-8 is left frustrated and annoyed.

The following day, Finn went to work as per usual. He had a good amount of clothes in Rey’s room by now, so he hadn’t gone back to his own room to change that morning. For that reason, he first met Poe at work that day, arriving a few minutes after he did. 

“Good morning Finn.” Poe said as he walked into their shared office.

“Good morning Poe.” Finn replied.

Not waiting around, Poe decided to share what he had heard. “So, I heard you caused a bit of a stir among the hangar crew yesterday?” 

“I did?” Finn asked, pretending like he didn’t know what Poe was talking about.

“You sure did. I heard you made a bit of a show for a pilot and a mechanic out there.” Poe said, revealing what he had heard.

“Ah, yeah, that.” Finn simply said, like it wasn’t a big deal.

“Congratulations buddy!” Poe said while pulling him in for a hug, congratulating him on finally getting together with Rey. He had an idea obviously, but couldn’t reveal that until Finn or Rey said it themselves, or showed it so the whole base had heard about it by the next day.

“Thank you, wouldn’t have been possible without some gentle pushes by you.” Finn said, acknowledging that Poe had helped him a bit, in his own way.

“No problem buddy, I’ll always be here for you. How long have you two been together?” Poe said while pulling away from the hug, reassuring Finn that he always wanted to help.

“A week or so.” Finn responded.

“And you didn’t tell me?” Poe said, faking that he was hurt.

“Didn’t tell anyone, really. We haven’t really talked about it, what we are. It just kind of happened, and then I’ve been swamped with work, really.” Finn said, explaining why they hadn’t told him or anyone else about it.

“Ah. What was up with the sudden PDA anyway?” Poe asked.

“Oh, uh, one of the mechanics was talking about Rey, how hot she was, etc., and how he wanted to ask her out. I just decided to kill that right away.” Finn explained.

“Oh look at you, getting jealous are you?” Poe said teasingly.

“No, I’m not, I just don’t want guys hitting on her, especially a creep like that.” Finn said, trying to defend himself.

“Okay, first of all: yes, you are. Secondly, he is kind of a creep, yes.” Poe said, not backing down on Finn being jealous.

“Fine, yes, I got jealous.” Finn finally admitted.

“Thank you. But you said you haven’t talked about it. You probably should, so you won’t have to go kiss her every time someone looks at her.” Poe said, suggesting that he and Rey talk about what their relationship truly is.

“Yeah, I will. But what about you and Zorii? What happens if some pilot hits on her?” Finn agreed, but decided to flip the subject back at Poe.

“Probably breaks his wrist.” Poe said flatly.

“What?” Finn said, utterly confused about what he just heard.

“That’s her specialty, she got a bit of a rep for it back in the day. Jokes aside, it’s complicated. Like you guys, we haven’t really had the time to talk much since. This….isn’t the first time this has happened, so I don’t even know what it is. And I don’t think she does either.” Poe explained, revealing a bit more about her mysterious past. Even now, Finn was mostly clueless about her.

“You sure know how to find them Poe.” Finn said teasingly.

“You and me both buddy, you and me both.” Poe said, sending it right back at him. 

“Look, why don’t you take the day off, go find her, and then you sort this out with her. I can handle things here, seems to have calmed down a bit anyway.” Finn suggested, feeling like it was about time he took charge alone for a day anyway.

“You sure?” Poe asked.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Go on, go sort things out. I got this.” Finn said, choo-ing Poe out of the room.

A few hours later, it was nearing lunchtime, so Finn decided to ask a favour of C-3PO, as he hung around the command centre most of the time anyway. 

“3PO, could you do me a favour?” Finn asked as he was approaching the older protocol droid.

“Certainly, General Finn. What do you need my services for?” 3PO responded, agreeing to help out.

“Could you go find Rey, and tell her I won’t make lunch today, and that I’m really sorry? I expect she’s working on Luke’s X-Wing with R2, if not she’s probably out by the practice course.” Finn said.

“Certainly, General Finn. I will go find her right away!” 3PO said, then walked off at his own pace.

Twenty minutes later, 3PO returned and walked into Finn’s office, this time accompanied by BB-8, who was rolling around his legs.

“Ah, you’re back 3PO. Did you find her?” Finn asked as soon as 3PO entered.

“I did, General Finn. She said thank you, and then sent me on my way. She seemed quite busy with R2. I have not seen that droid in such high spirits for a long time, General. It truly makes me glad to see Miss Rey have that effect on him.” 3PO said, mentioning R2-D2 while he was at it.

“Yeah, she truly is special.” Finn said, smiling a bit to himself. “Thank you, 3PO, you can go now.” Finn then continued, dismissing 3PO again so he could resume whatever it was he was doing. 

“Hi there, BB, why are you here?” Finn asked the little droid. He usually rolled around wherever he wanted to, but Finn assumed BB would either be with Poe or Rey.

BB-8 beeped out a response, sounding frustrated.

“Poe kicked you out? Why?” Finn asked. He had by now learned how to perfectly speak with BB and the other binary speaking droids, including R2, so he didn’t need a translator anymore.

BB beeped some more, trying to explain.

“You don’t know? Oh, I think I might know why. Don’t worry about it BB, he probably just needs some alone time. You can hang out here if you want to. Can’t promise it’ll be exciting, but the offer stands.” 

BB beeped in agreement, as it was willing to hang around for a bit. Finn could sense that it missed the thrill of missions a bit, but Poe obviously didn’t want to send it along on missions where neither he, Finn, Rey or Chewie was involved directly. He didn’t trust anyone else to take care of the droid.

15 minutes later, a slightly dirty Rey suddenly came walking in, carrying two paper bags, prompting BB-8 to beep in joy, alerting Finn to her presence.

“Oh, hey there, aren’t you working on the ship?” Finn asked, curious as to why she had stopped by. 

“I was, but I need to eat. And so do you. I realize you can’t leave right now since Poe isn’t around, so instead I came to you, with food.” Rey explained, putting down the bags at Finn’s desk, before rolling Poe’s chair over so she could sit across from him. She sat down, and talked a bit with BB on how the ship fixing was going, while Finn cleared some space on his desk.

“Thank you so much Rey, you really didn’t need to do this.” Finn said, feeling bad that he had skipped out on lunch only for her to organize it all herself for him.

“No, but I wanted to.” Rey said, smiling a bit. She had no problem with doing gestures like this, she felt it was the least she could do to make his day a bit better. “Where is Poe, anyway?”

“I sent him away to go figure things out with Zorii, gave him the day off.” Finn explained. 

Rey looked a bit puzzled. “Why would they need to figure things out? Aren’t they friends?”

“Yeah, but they slept together the night we kissed out by the practice course.” Finn said.

“Oh.” Rey merely responded. She understood why they needed to talk about it now. And it got her to think about her and Finn. “Finn, what are we?”

“What do you mean?” Finn asked, not really following.

“What are the two of us, like, what is our relationship?” Rey tried to clarify.

Finn looked like he was thinking. “Uh, I haven’t really thought about that.” 

“Well, neither have I, to be honest.” Rey admitted.

“We probably should.” Finn said.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I can start with what I do know. I know that I love you, with all my heart. And I don’t plan on stopping. When I heard that guy yesterday, I did get jealous, not because I thought he stood a chance, but because I want you all to myself.” Finn said, once again declaring his love for her.

“And I know that I love you, so incredibly much. You’ve always been here for me, through thick and thin, and I love you even more for it. I’m not going anywhere, and I’m not even contemplating anyone else over you. And if anyone thinks they have a shot with you, they’ll have to go through me first. I want to be with you, and you alone.” Rey said, pretty much saying the same as Finn just did, just with her own words.

“I want to be with you too, Rey, and nobody else.” Finn said in return, looking at her with loving eyes.

“I think…I think we’re probably a couple, Finn.” Rey said, like she just realized.

“I think we probably are.” Finn agreed. “If anyone asks, I have a girlfriend, the hottest girl in the resistance.” Finn then continued, lightening the mood a bit again.

“The hottest girl in the resistance?” Rey said with a chuckle, like she couldn’t believe Finn had just said that.

“Only thing I will ever agree with that mechanic about. And you are, by the way.” Finn said, completely serious.

“You sure? That blonde girl in medical department is pretty hot.” Rey said, testing him a bit. She didn’t doubt his love for her, but hottest girl was probably a stretch for her. She had never paid much mind to her looks, outside of doing her hair a bit nicer after meeting Leia.

“I’m sure. She has nothing on you. Your adorable hairstyle, beautiful hazel eyes, that cute nose of yours, how beautiful you look when you smile. Or how fit you are, with your toned arms, abs, and fantastic ass. And how nice your perky breasts felt in my hands, your mouth on your nipples. How especially how strong your legs were when they held my head in place while I licked you until you moaned for me. She has nothing on you, Rey.” Finn said, describing in explicit detail to her how attractive he found her. All of her.

“Finn…” Rey simply said, then stood up, bent over the table, and pulled Finn to her, the two meeting in a kiss filled with desire. They were ready to go further, had it not been for them being interrupted by BB-8 beeping in frustration on the floor. They parted, looking a bit embarrassed. BB-8, having seen enough, decided to roll out of the room. Finn and Rey merely looked at each other after BB left, smiling while shaking their heads a bit at what nearly happened. They then decided to eat their lunch, both with a bit of a grin on their faces.


	26. Some Well Earned Rest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poe suggests that Finn should take some time off to rest. Finn, initially unsure, goes to talk with Rey about it.

“You know, you should consider taking some time off.” Poe suddenly said one day at work.

Finn looked up from his paperwork, and looked right at Poe with a confused face. “How so?” 

“Well, you did really well with those missions last week, and I know you worked your ass off to make sure everything went to plan. You deserve a bit of rest after that.” Poe argued.

“And you don’t?” Finn questioned; Poe deserved just as much credit as he did in his eyes.

“Sure, everyone here could probably need it, but I’m thinking about you right now. Hell, after all you’ve been through you deserve some rest more than anyone here.” Poe said, thinking that living your whole life in military service at least warranted a week off. 

“I spent most of that time in the Order, Poe. That isn’t exactly something to be proud of, or to claim time off for.” Finn replied, not thinking that he really deserved that.

“Not willingly. And you did the right thing, and since then you’ve worked your ass off to help us, and you’ve done so, so much. Your efforts were crucial in us defeating the First Order, and have continued to be in snuffing out the last remains of it. You don’t owe the Resistance anything, Finn. And you deserve some rest, seriously.” Poe argued on, not wanting Finn to feel like he owed the Resistance his eternal service.

“Yeah but I can’t just leave my work here. I’m getting closer with the stormtrooper training program too, I don’t think we’re too far away from being able to liberate them, and the planet they’re at.” Finn said, still focused on what he could do to help Stormtroopers, especially those currently in training. It would kill two birds with one stone if the production lines stopped, and he could help some adapt to a “normal” life over time.

“I’m not saying that you should quit, Finn. Just some time off, a week or two to recharge your batteries. I can watch over your project in the meantime, and inform you if there’s any major developments. Gives you some more time to work on those jedi things too.” Poe said, reassuring Finn that it would be fine.

“And what about you? Shouldn’t you get some time off?” Finn asked.

“Sure, but that can wait. I had some time off not long before the Jakku mission.” Poe replied, not feeling like it was the most pressing concern right now.

“That’s nearly a year ago Poe.” Finn said.

“Yeah, but you’ve been going on twenty years without one. You get yourself some time off, I’ll get one at a later date. Go off planet, see somewhere else. Bring Rey, she could probably need it too. Jakku wasn’t exactly a holiday colony.” Poe argued, then suggested Finn bring someone with him.

“Okay, okay. That could be quite nice, actually. Just promise me you keep me informed if anything happens.” Finn said, finally agreeing to it.

“Of course, Finn, I will.” Poe said, like that was the most obvious thing ever.

“Alright, I’ll talk with Rey about it later. Think we should get back to work now though.” Finn said, reminding Poe that they had been using up precious time. 

Later that day, Finn turned up to practice with Rey, intending to suggest some time off for them both. “Hey there beautiful.” Finn said as he sat down beside her, giving her a sweet kiss.

“Hey there handsome.” Rey responded once they parted.

“Before we start today, I just wanted to talk to you about something. That alright?” Finn asked, in case she wanted to wait until after they were done.

“Yeah, of course Finn. You don’t need to ask permission to talk with me about things.” Rey said, like it was obvious he could ask her anything.

“Poe mentioned earlier that I should take some time off, go off planet or something. And I was wondering what you think about that.” Finn said, wanting to hear if Rey was interested in that.

“That sounds great, Finn. You deserve some rest for sure. What did you tell him?” Rey said, agreeing that Finn should get some time off, but not catching onto that he wanted her to come with.

“I said that I wanted to talk with you about it. I wondered if you wanted to come with me.” Finn said, clarifying that he wanted her along.

Rey smiled widely upon hearing that. “I would love to!” Rey said happily, reaching out to hug him in joy.

“Nice, I’m glad to hear that, it’ll be good for both of us to get some time away.” Finn said with Rey wrapped around him.

“Do you have anywhere in mind?” Rey then asked him.

“I haven’t really thought that far ahead. I wanted to talk with you first, maybe decide together.” Finn said honestly. 

Rey pulled away from the hug, and looked him in the eyes with a wide smile on her face. “I think I might have an idea.”

“Oh? That was quick.” Finn said, surprised she could come up with a place that fast.

“Leia mentioned to me that she had a house by a lake on Naboo, and that she really wanted to go there after the war. Said that the whole planet is beautiful, and that her mother was once the Queen there.” Rey said enthusiastically, recalling what Leia had told her.

“Naboo huh. We liberated Naboo very recently, so it should be safe at least. I can look into the house, see what happened to it. But based on what I’ve seen, I would love to go there.” Finn said, thinking of how he had planned the infiltration of the palace in Theed recently, based on some really old blueprints of the place that the Resistance had stored. 

“You can? That’d be great, maybe we can stay there if it looks alright!” Rey said eagerly.

“Yeah, maybe we can. I’ll look into it later, I promise. Anyway, what are we going to do today, Master?” Finn said, teasing her a bit at the end.

“Well, I think you’ve become really good at lifting things, and you can push things. But even more useful is the ability to pull things to you. So that’s what we’re doing today.” Rey said, recapping what he had learned so far.

“Nice, let’s get started then!” Finn said with enthusiasm, ready to get back to training. He stood up and reached his hand out to Rey, pulling her up.

“Let’s.” Rey said in return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know, I know. Using Naboo as the beautiful holiday trip location is a bit of a cliché, but I have some things in mind.


	27. A Trip Across the Galaxy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The duo does their last minute checks for the trip to Naboo, and gets an unexpected guest with them.

A few days after their conversation, Rey was on the Falcon, checking if it was flight ready. It had been grounded for a little bit, so nothing should have been broken, but it was better safe than sorry with that ship. She was preparing the ship for a trip off planet, after her conversation with Finn a few days prior. Finn had looked into Leia’s house, and as it turns out, she had left a groundskeeper there, and he was still there. The First Order had searched the place at one point, but then left it alone. As a result, the place was still in good shape, and it could be arranged to have visitors there. The planet in general was deemed safe, and if anything were to happen, they were both capable of handling it regardless.

As a result, they were now preparing for a week away. It was good to finally be leaving, Rey thought to herself. She hadn’t really been super interested in going back, but had done so to be with Finn. She could do her training there, but she didn’t feel like she was an official member of the resistance most times, partially due to her own lacking interest in taking part in the leadership of it, secondly because she hadn’t really been asked to take part in any missions since Exegol. She was fine with that, but her reason for staying was Finn. For them to finally go away for a bit was something she was very keen to do. She wanted to see the galaxy, not to run away from anything, but to enjoy it. 

Finn had been a bit more reluctant, feeling a sense of duty to the Resistance, and being worried about his project to free the Stormtroopers in training. Poe had reassured him that he would take care of it, and after hearing how excited Rey was about the prospect of going away for a bit with him, he was sold.

“How’s the ship looking?” Finn asked as he walked into the ship, seeing Rey inspect something down in the hidden room they had hidden in all that time ago.

Rey peeked up from there upon hearing Finn talk to her, then responded. “Looks good to me. Chewie had more than enough time to fix things, and it’s not that long since I checked it either. Much baggage left?” 

“No, I think this is it for me. You got anything left that you want to bring?” Finn asked her, willing to go get it if needed to.

“No, I have everything. Go tell Poe and the others that we’re leaving, I’ll be done here soon.” Rey said, having already put most of her few belongings into the Falcon.

While Finn went away to talk with Poe, R2-D2 came rolling into the Falcon. “Oh, hi R2, what brings you here?” Rey said as she saw the astromech droid enter the living room.

R2-D2 beeped a bit, explaining that he wanted to come with.

“Oh, so you’ve been there before? I’ll ask Finn once he gets back, okay?”

R2 beeped back in agreement, and decided to go outside again while Rey continued checking the ship.

Meanwhile, Finn found Poe in their office, accompanied by BB-8. 

“Hey Finn, thought you’d be off by now?” Poe said, surprised to see Finn still around.

“Yeah, I came to say that we’re leaving soon. I’ll be back in a week, so take care of the place for me while I’m gone, okay? And please let me know if anything happens.” Finn said, wanting to still be kept in the loop.

“Of course, buddy, I will take care of things. And I will let you know, and look over your project, I promise. But please don’t stress about that while you’re gone. Enjoy yourselves, and let off some steam. It’ll be good for you.” Poe replied, reassuring Finn that everything would be fine.

“Alright, thanks. Take care while I’m gone.” Finn said, going in for a hug.

“I will. Have a good trip!” Poe said in return, hugging Finn back. 

Finn pulled back from the hug, then bent down to talk to BB-8. “Look out for this idiot for me, okay BB?” Finn said, pretending like Poe couldn’t hear him. BB-8 beeped back that he would, if Finn said goodbye to Rey for him. Finn agreed, then stood up and left, saying goodbye to 3PO and the others in the main room briefly before going back to the Falcon. Chewie was standing on the roof of the Falcon, checking the antenna, so Finn decided to head inside.

Finn entered the cockpit, where he found Rey relaxing in the pilot’s chair. “How are we looking?” He asked as he leaned over the co-pilot’s chair.

Rey turned around to look at him before she spoke. “Good, I’m done inside. Was just waiting for you to come back and for Chewie to finish on the roof. By the way, R2 came by. He wants to come by. Said he’s been on Naboo before, and wants to see it again. Okay with you if he comes with us?” 

“Yeah, of course. I’ll be glad to have him along.” Finn said, seeing no issue in letting him come along. 

“Great! I’ll go find him and let him know, then check with Chewie. Can you double check our things in the meantime?” Rey said happily, the excitement of going away evident on her face.

“Sure thing. BB-8 wanted me to say goodbye, by the way.” Finn replied. Rey smiled fondly at that.

Half an hour later, Finn, Rey and R2-D2 finally set off for Naboo. Finn settled in as the co-pilot, while Rey flew the ship, like she usually did. Finn found it amazing how she had flown the Falcon so expertly back on Jakku, how she seemed to know exactly what to do without ever having flown it. Later on, it had made sense to him, her force abilities probably helped her without her knowing it, and her knowledge from scavenging parts for years gave her a good idea about how the ships were put together. He sometimes wondered if what Rey had said to him previously was true, that his force abilities most likely had helped him during his own training in the past. He always saw himself as a product of hard work, but it was possible that hard work and natural ability was behind it after all.

It was a long flight to Naboo, virtually crossing whole the known galaxy just to get there. The Falcon was able to fly a long distance without refuelling, luckily, but even the Falcon couldn’t fly that far. During the planning of the flight, they had discovered that refuelling would be a troublesome affair. The ideal location would have been Hosnian Prime, but that was obviously a bit difficult. The ideal spot based on distance was then identified as Corellia, but the planet still had First Order presence, which they didn’t want to be caught up with, especially in such a recognizable ship. The nearby planet of Balosar was also not ideal due to the air pollution there. 

As a result, they ended up refuelling on a space station near the planet of Ojom, home of the Besalisk. They were both amazed at seeing such a unique creature, all of them towering over them both, and with four arms. R2-D2 merely noted that he used to know of one on Coruscant many years ago, not as impressed as the younger, more impressionable duo was. Luckily, the people there were friendly, and they refuelled without any trouble and left shortly thereafter to resume their journey. The rest of the journey was spent talking about everything and everyone. They both felt a sense of relief from getting away, even though life had been fairly relaxed for a while. 

By the time they reached Naboo, the day was at an end. They arrived as darkness was falling over the planet, and as a result, they couldn’t really see much of the surroundings. They had established contact with the housekeeper, and once they got close, he sent out a flare so they would know where to land. After landing, they greeted the housekeeper and thanked him for letting them come on such short notice. They then walked into the house, carrying a bag of clothes each straight to the bedroom, where they collapsed in exhaustion on the king size bed, tired after a whole day of travel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a transport chapter here, literally. It doesn't really offer much on its own, but I despite characters virtually teleporting to and from locations without effort or mention (hi, last few seasons of GoT, looking at you, yes you.), and I wanted to establish that R2 is coming with and have them see something they had never seen before on the way there. There will be more going on in the next few chapters, I promise.


	28. A Beautiful Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn wakes up first on their first day on Naboo, thinking he had to go to work. Realizing where he was, he goes to get some food, and returns to find Rey having woken up herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is just straight up porn, so if that isn't your thing, I advice you to skip this chapter. This chapter took a bit longer to write, as I wanted to make this a fairly natural progression from their first time, keeping some of the same themes, while not making it a straight up copy of the last scene I wrote. Hopefully I was able to do that, though it took me a bit longer than I hoped. I promise I will move the plot a bit soon, but I couldn't resist letting the space orphans fuck (saw that in the tags of a fic once, loved it, so shoutout to whoever that was).

Finn woke up the following day in full panic, and felt himself stop breathing for a second. He didn’t recognize where he was, and he thought he was late for work, given that the sun was already up outside. Then he recognized something familiar, the smell of Rey. He turned around, and saw her lying there, sleeping peacefully beside him. They hadn’t been cuddled up like they usually were in the smaller bed they normally slept in, as both of them had pretty much collapsed on the bed the moment they entered the room. Seeing her sleep there peacefully, he remembered that he was on Naboo, with Rey. His breathing evened out again, as he lay there, looking at her. 

After a bit, he slipped out of bed, pulled on a t-shirt he found in his bag, and decided to go see if there was any food in the house. He realized they had forgotten to ask, so worst case he would need to go find some ration bars on the Falcon. Thankfully, the housekeeper had left them a tiny bit of food, but they would definitely need to go get some more eventually. Finn grabbed a fruit he didn’t recognize, and took a bite. The fruit tasted sweet and juicy, while being somewhat hard, but not too hard to chew. He didn’t know of it, so he assumed Rey didn’t either. Luckily, there was another one left, so Rey could try it later. Even so, he made a mental note to himself to ask the housekeeper about it later. Finn washed his hands after finishing the fruit, intending to return to bed at least until Rey woke up.

Finn walked back in the bedroom, thinking he was quiet, but as he approached the bed, Rey’s eyes fluttered open.

“Finn? Why are you up?” She asked with a sleepy voice, looking up at him.

“Good morning beautiful.” Finn said to her, before bending down to kiss her forehead. “I just got hungry, so I grabbed some food.” He continued, before walking around the bed and slipping under the covers again.

“And good morning to you, handsome.” Rey said in return. “I slept so well, this bed is really, really comfortable.”

Finn laid himself on his side, looking at her. “Yeah, same. I was exhausted after yesterday. Been so focused on working recently that I woke up thinking I was late.”

Rey cleared her throat a bit, then spoke. “Oh wow. Yeah, I guess work has been pretty non-stop recently. What’s the plan today though?”

“I’m torn.” Finn merely said, without elaborating, wanting Rey to ask him.

“Between what?” Rey asked, as if on cue.

“Between going outside to explore this gorgeous planet, and staying in bed to explore my gorgeous girlfriend.” Finn said boldly, flashing a toothy grin at her.

Rey grinned right back him, happy he brought it up. “Hmm…both options are good, but feeling my handsome boyfriend’s hands all over me is the most tempting one.” She said seductively, enticing him to touch her.

Finn didn’t wait around and closed the distance between them to kiss her again, this time meeting her mouth for a hungry kiss as Rey rolled onto her back with Finn over her. Rey gladly gave him access to her mouth, their tongues resuming their usual dance, as their mouths moved in unison, wanting more. After a bit, their mouth separated, needing to breathe a bit. Rey took the chance to ask something before she forgot.

“Finn, your lips, what is that taste? It tastes _so_ good.” Rey said, practically licking her own mouth to taste the remains of it.

Finn chuckled a bit at that. Discovering new foods and sharing it with the other had been one of their shared joys for a good while by now. They didn’t like asking others about what to eat, instead wanting to just try everything to make up for what they had missed out on. “It’s a fruit I found in the kitchen. There’s one more there for you, but I’ll ask the housekeeper about what kind it is so we can get more.” He explained to her, wanting more of it himself, especially if it made Rey attack his lips like she just did.

“Mmm, I’ll make sure to try some more of that later.” Rey said, the she pulled his face back down to hers, interlocking their mouths yet again. Rey loved kissing him, she had discovered. His big, soft lips felt so good when they connected with hers, both for shorter pecks on the lips, and for longer, more passionate kisses like the one they were currently sharing. But she didn’t just want to kiss. They hadn’t done anything but kiss since their first time together, not really finding the time. But not, they had time, and she intended to make the most of it. 

Finn finally broke the kiss, causing Rey to frown from the lack of his lips on hers. But she knew where this was heading, and she was all for it. Finn sat himself up on his knees, and pulled off his shirt, revealing his muscled body to her yet again. She had gotten used to seeing him by now, but she was still in awe of his body, how well built he was, how he looked to be rock solid, but was so, so soft, if only for her. Finn bent down to go kiss her body, but in a swift manoeuvre, Rey threw him onto his back, and climbed over his hips. She bent down, and put her hands to his chest, feeling his pecs in her hand, kissing them. Rey continued like this, kissing him, touching him, feeling him all over his body. If last time was about exploring each other, this time Rey wanted to worship Finn.

All the while she was sitting on him, trailing kisses all over him, she was moving her hips, rubbing herself against him, making him gradually harder, until she could feel him rock hard inside of his underwear, pressed against hers. She could hear him moan as she sucked on his skin, and she could feel his pleasure through the force. Feeling him hard against her, she decided she wanted to see him, all of him. She slipped off him, and grabbed his underwear, pulling it off with some assistance from Finn, who lifted himself up slightly to make it easier for her. Seeing his cock again, she remembered how good it had felt to have all of that pressed inside of her. She wanted that again, but she also wanted to try something new. She started stroking it a bit, like she had done the last time, but feeling how hard he already was from her previous machinations, she knew it wasn’t necessary. She decided to place a kiss on the tip of it, like last time. And then another kiss, on the side of it, and another kiss. She noticed that he liked being kissed on the tip, given how sensitive it was, but he didn’t feel much from the other kisses. 

Remembering how good Finn’s tongue had felt inside of her, Rey then experimentally put her mouth to the tip again, and opened up, letting it slightly inside. She sucked on it a bit, drawing a moan from Finn. She then repeated it, and Finn sucked his breath a bit. He likes this, she thought to herself. Rey decided to go deeper, and put more of Finn inside of her mouth. She knew the friction of her hand felt good for him, so she decided to try with her mouth. She moved slowly at first, head back and forth, sucking on him. Then she gradually went faster, pushing Finn deep inside of her mouth, settling into a nice rhythm while Finn struggled to maintain his breath from the pleasure he was feeling. 

Eventually, she heard Finn breathing irregularly, and pulled him out of her mouth with a loud pop. Finn looked up at her, hands up, like he couldn’t believe what she had just done. “Why’d you stop? That was so good!” He said, frustrated that Rey stopped right at the good part.

Rey looked up at him with a devilish grin, happy with her own work. “I’m not done with you yet.” She merely said. She wouldn’t let him finish just yet, not before she got some too. Finn understood what she meant, and decided he would give it to her. He sat himself up on his knees, with Rey doing the same. He reached out to the back of her head, and pulled her in for a short kiss, tasting himself on her lips. 

“Rey, I want to see you.” Finn said as he broke the kiss. Rey was still dressed in her underwear and breastwrap, while Finn had nothing. That didn’t seem fair, so Finn wanted to even the playing field, and he really wanted to see her again. 

Rey silently nodded, still slightly hesitant about her own body, but not wanting to refuse Finn. She then started taking off the wraps, revealing herself to him. Finn didn’t wait around after she got them fully off, and reached out to touch her boobs. He took his hand over them and squeezed them lightly, feeling them in his grasp. He then started rubbing his thumbs around her nipples, hardening them. Feeling like the angle was a bit awkward, he nodded down to the bed, indication that he wanted her to lie down. Rey did, and Finn the resumed his work on her breasts. He had seen and sensed her hesitancy about showing herself, and remembered how unsure she had been the last time too. Because of that, he wanted to put special emphasis on her breasts, to touch them and feel them as much as possible, so she knew just how much he liked them, and how she had nothing to be ashamed of. 

Finn laid down to give him access to her breasts with his mouth, and continued, this time starting by kissing her. “Rey, you are so beautiful.” He said, then gave them a kiss. “You are so pretty.” He said, and kissed the other one, before looking right up at her to speak. “You are absolutely gorgeous. You’re the woman of my dreams, the one I always wanted, and I love you, all of you. I love how you make me laugh, how strong and independent, yet loving you are, and how you never give up on people. And I love looking at you, how cute you look when you wrinkle your nose, how the stray hairs that fall out from your cute buns twirl around each other, how pretty your face is, how your lips feel on mine, and how your cute little butt feels, both in my hands and sitting on my lap. And I love how good you felt around me, how you tasted when I licked you. And I love your breasts, how they feel in my hands, how it feels to suck on them, to kiss them, and how soft and nice they are. And I love looking at them, they’re perfect, just like the rest of you. You are my favourite person in the universe, Rey. And I love you, all of you, even if you don’t. So please, don’t ever feel like you aren’t good enough, because you are, Rey.”

Rey was completely in shock from what he had just said. He had given her a complete love confession while laying draped over her, having just kissed her breasts. She was about to speak up, to try to say something back, to formulate how sweet that truly was of him to say, but he didn’t give her the chance. Instead, he put his mouth back on her breasts, kissing them both again before sucking on her right nipple. Rey’s mouth was open to speak, but instead of words, she only got a small moan out, loving how his mouth felt on her nipples. It felt amazing to have him suck on her, like she was sensitive there, but only for his hands and his mouth, not when she herself had tried. It made her forget about any shyness or doubts about her own body, if only for a bit, as Finn worked magic with his mouth on her boobs.

“Mmm, you feel so good Rey.” Finn said, as he finally let her nipple out from the grip of his soft lips. 

“You’re one to speak, how’d you even do that?” Rey said a bit breathy, not really understanding how he could make an area she hadn’t considered sensitive at all feel _that_ good.

“What can I say? I have my ways.” Finn said a bit cockily, loving how good he had made Rey feel, all while massively enjoying himself. He then started tracing his fingers downwards, down her toned stomach, and down to her underwear, which caught his attention. “Mmm, I can see that you’re ready.” He said, seeing how soaked her underwear was.

“Finn, I want you, now.” Rey said, impatient to have him. Finn, however, wasn’t willing just yet. He nipped at the underwear, indicating that he wanted it off, and Rey lifted herself up to let him take it off. He pulled it off, and tossed it away, and then ignored Rey’s pleas and instead did what he had wanted to do ever since their last time, putting his mouth to her pussy. He placed his mouth to it, kissing it like he had done the last time, his lips becoming wet just from barely touching her. He put his tongue in, and licked her, tasting her completely, and loving it. This was Rey, his beautiful girlfriend, who was soaking wet just for him. He licked her quickly and intently, sucking up the taste of her.

Rey moaned, loving how it felt, but it wasn’t exactly what she wanted. “Finn, please.” She begged between her moans, but it fell on deaf ears, as Finn was to lost in the taste of her to stop. After a bit, Rey decided to take charge. She pushed herself away from him, causing Finn to panic a bit, thinking he had upset her by not listening. Rey then pushed him to flip him over on his back, and straddled his hips again, and bent down to give him a hungry kiss on the lips, seeing and feeling how soaked he was in her own fluids. Straddled over his hips, she rubbed her opening against him, feeling that he was still rock hard for her. Rey looked at him, asking for permission with her eyes. Finn nodded back at her; he was ready. Rey pushed herself up slightly, and grabbed Finn’s cock, lining him up against her entrance, letting the tip in slightly. She then lowered herself slowly, gritting her teeth slightly as she took in more and more of him, until he was fully sheathed inside of her.

Using her strength, Rey lifted her hips up again, gradually going up, before lowering herself back down slowly. It was different, very different from last time, with slight discomfort and movements she wasn’t used to, but her rigorous training helped make it easier. After a bit, Rey figured out the movement, and started to increase the pace a bit, gradually feeling more comfortable with him inside of her again, like she had last time. Finn merely watched, looking up at Rey, worried at seeing her gritted teeth while she closed her eyes, but then seeing how she eased into it, he calmed down . As she increased the pace, Finn started to feel it more himself, feeling like this was a bit different from last time, but still very, very good. 

Rey started to settle into a rhythm, bouncing up and down on his cock, breathing heavily from the pleasure. Finn looked up at her, this beautiful girl riding him with a smile on her face, her boobs bouncing a bit from the movement, causing Finn to become completely entranced from staring at her sweaty body and beautiful face. He loved it, just like it looked she did, but eventually his instinct started to take over, his hips moving, pushing up into her as she moved up and down on him. He soon managed to match her rhythm, their skin smacking against each other loudly as he fucked into her tight pussy while she rode him.

“Ahh Finn, fuck!” Rey screamed out, pleasure taking over her. This was _good_ , really good. 

“You feel so good Rey, shit.” Finn only managed to say back to her, struggling to even get that out. 

They continued fucking each other, skin smacking, as her tight, wet pussy grabbed his thick cock tightly, like it didn’t want it to ever leave. This was right, so right, they both thought, not believing they had managed to go for so long between their first and second times, given how great it felt. After a bit, they both started to become worn, Finn feeling like he could finish any moment, while Rey was breathing faster and faster, close to finishing herself.

“Rey, I’m…” Finn managed to say, not able to finish what he said. Rey understood though, knowing what he was trying to say. 

“I want you…” She said back breathily. “Inside of me..” She said, then lifted herself completely off him, and fell on her back beside him. Since last time, she had visited the Resistance medical bay, and had started going on birth control, realizing after the first time that there would be repeats, and that she shouldn’t get pregnant right now. She had told Finn about it, who agreed that it was a good idea. 

Finn got the memo, and managed to get up on his knees, got in between Rey’s spread legs and lifted her up by her ass, lining himself up to her again. He then entered her again, this time not waiting around, pushing hard into her right away. He fucked into her hard and fast, while Rey rubbed her clit with her eyes closed, pleasure close to taking over her entire mind. Finn felt his rhythm starting to get erratic, and gave Rey a warning. “M’ close.” He managed to say. 

Rey however was close herself, the pleasure of Finn fucking her while she touched herself being too much for her. Finally, she reached the edge, and went clean over it. “Ahhhhhhhhhhh” She screamed out loudly, her orgasm taking over her whole body and mind. Finn kept fucking into her through it, and with her pussy grabbing him tighter than ever before, Finn finished, his warm seed spilling deep inside of her. He collapsed over her after that, completely exhausted from that, despite Rey doing most of the work. 

After a little, with Finn still sheathed inside of her and collapsed on top of her, Rey spoke up. “Thank you, Finn. For what you said. I love you. I love you so much Finn.” Rey said while looking into his eyes lovingly. 

“I love you too Rey. Never, ever forget that.” Finn said back, equally lovingly.

“I won’t, I promise.” Rey said in return, smiling at how good he was. She then closed the already small distance between their faces, and pulled him in for a heated and deep kiss. 

Once they finished the kiss, Finn pulled himself out of her, and rolled over to the side. Both he and Rey noticed the sight of his seed pouring slowly out of her, loving how it had felt doing it. She definitely needed a shower, but Finn finishing inside of her was something she wanted more of. Might as well make use of the birth control, she thought to herself silently. 

“Guess we need a shower huh.” Finn said, looking back up at her face with a smile. 

“Yeah, I guess we do. But that can wait a little.” Rey said, then shuffled a bit closer to him, moving her head to rest on his chest, wanting to rest a bit before she moved anywhere at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! Please do leave feedback, as it truly keeps me motivated and happy to keep writing.


	29. Independent and Stubborn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Finn go to Theed on their second day spent on Naboo. There, they learn a bit more about the past of their traveling companion.

The following day, Rey was back on the Falcon doing pre-flight checks. They weren’t planning on leaving Naboo yet, but they felt it would be a shame to travel there just to stay in and around the house, like they had done the day before. They felt suitably relaxed now, so they intended to take a trip to Theed to see the capital for themselves. Rey had heard stories of the beautiful architecture there from Leia, and while she wasn’t terribly interested in architecture, she did want to see beautiful places. Finn had contacted the local leaders they had temporarily installed until Naboo had the chance to elect a new a new king or queen, regarding where they could land the Falcon. They had gotten permission to land in the Naboo main hangar, so at least they didn’t have to land outside of the city. The Falcon wasn’t a small ship by any means, so landing in the middle of a city wasn’t really an option. 

“Everything look good?” Finn suddenly said as he walked into the cockpit, where Rey was fiddling with switches. 

Continuing to check things, Rey responded without really looking at him. “Yeah, everything looks good. Doesn’t break so often when it is flown a bit nicer than when it’s on missions.” She said, pointing out that it wasn’t simply a durability issue with the Falcon, it was just thrown into a lot of demanding missions that required a lot from it. She didn’t really think there would be anything wrong given that the flight two days prior had been a pretty calm and relaxed one without any hiccups, but better safe than sorry.

“Alright, I’ll go lock up the house then.” Finn said, and then turned to leave.

“Okay”. Rey said, then suddenly remembered she had forgotten something. “Finn, wait!” She shouted out a few seconds later. 

Finn practically came sprinting back upon hearing her urgent tone. “What? Is anything wrong?” He asked her when he got back to the cockpit.

“No, no. I just forgot something. Sorry if I scared you.” Rey said, feeling bad about making him react like that.

“Oh, okay. That’s alright. What did you forget?” Finn said, relieved it wasn’t anything urgent after all.

“I was wondering if you could get my saber, and maybe keep it in your jacket? I want it with me to be safe, but I don’t want to have it visible so we don’t draw too much attention.” Rey said. Normally during missions, she would have a holster for it as part of her outfit, but she was currently wearing a similar version of her white outfit, just without the holster and hood. Finn, meanwhile did have space for it in his jacket, having made sure he had big enough inside pockets to have small weapons on him hidden if need be. 

“Oh, yeah. I can go get that. Be back in a moment.” Finn said in agreement.

“Thanks Finn, love you!” Rey said, then kissed him on the cheek right as he was about to leave. Finn smiled, was about to walk off when R2 came rolling in, blocking his exit. R2 had heard their conversation from the main room, and rolled into the cockpit to explain that he could keep the saber in him.

“Wait, you can keep a lightsaber in you?” Rey said, completely unaware that R2 even had storage space. R2 beeped in confirmation.

“I’ll go get it, and we’ll see I guess.” Finn said, then slipped past R2 to go find it.

A while later Finn came back, and successfully placed the saber in the hidden slot R2 had. Once that was done, they were off to Theed with R2 in tow, as he wanted to see it again after all that time away. The trip took merely ten minutes, before they approached Theed. 

“Wow, this place is gorgeous.” Finn said, bending over to look down at it as they flew over the city to reach the hangar. 

“Yeah, Leia wasn’t kidding, this is something else.” Rey said, flying while looking out as much as she could.

“Okay, that is the tallest waterfall I have ever seen. Wow.” Finn said as they approached the waterfall from the Solleu River, completely astounded from how big the drop really was.

“Wow…” Rey merely said, in awe of it all. She had seen some places in the past months, but this took the cake. Despite her admiration of their surroundings, Rey was able to land the Falcon safely inside of the hangar.

After landing, they walked out of the ship, with R2 rolling behind them down the ramp. To their surprise, they were met by a small group of soldiers.

“General Finn! Glad you had the time to visit us here.” A resistance soldier bearing the mark of a sergeant said, saluting him.

Finn looked a bit embarrassed of it all, he didn’t want any attention for being there. “Thank you, sergeant. Please, just call me Finn. And it’s not an inspection or anything, me and Rey just want to see the city. An unofficial visit, basically.” He explained to the soldier.

“Of course, General. Sorry, Finn. Will you be needing a guide around the city?” The sergeant asked them.

“No, I think we’ll be fine. We have R2 here with us, he apparently knows the place.” Finn explained.

“Wait, that’s the R2-D2?” The sergeant said, amazed that the droid was truly there. 

R2-D2 beeped out something in response, basically saying “The one and only”.

“Wow, to have R2 back here is truly special.” The sergeant said.

“How so?” Rey said. She had remained silent through their short exchange, but couldn’t resist asking when the soldier talked up R2 like that. She knew he was a legend, but hadn’t really heard all that many stories yet.

“He used to be one of the astromech droids assigned to a royal cruiser. He saved Queen Amidala’s ship during her escape in the Naboo Crisis, and then later helped a young kid, Anakin Skywalker fly out and destroy the blockade. He remained with the Queen after that, until she became a senator and brought him with her. He ended up with Skywalker again at some point helping out during the clone wars, and then resurfaced again later to help out the Resistance.” The sergeant explained, trying to explain in short why R2 was so well known on Naboo.

“Oh, wow. I knew he was a bit of a Resistance legend, but he was in the clone wars too?” Rey said, a bit amazed. R2 had never specifically mentioned that to her, nor had anyone else.

R2-D2 beeped in happy confirmation, glad to be recognized like this.

“And when was the Naboo crisis?” Finn asked.

“Around ten years before the clone wars.” The sergeant said.

“Wait. That means that R2 has been active for 67 years at least.” Rey said, a bit shocked at how old he truly was. 

“Wow. Good shape for an old droid at least.” Finn quipped in response. Upon hearing that, R2 zapped Finn’s thigh, not appreciating being called old. “OW!” Finn uttered in reflex from the slight pain.

Rey chuckled a bit from seeing that, covering her mouth to not laugh loudly at him. 

“Also famed for being quite independent and stubborn.” The sergeant added, laughing slightly himself.

“Yeah, I can tell.” Finn said, giving R2 a hard look. “Anyway, I think we should be going. Thanks for the warm welcome.” Finn said to the soldier, wanting to get on with their little tour of the city.

Taking that as their cue to leave, the soldier saluted Finn once again. Then walked off, with a handful of other soldiers in tow. That left Rey, Finn and R2 as the only ones left in the hangar.

“Sorry for calling you old, R2. Your electro shock certainly still works.” Finn said, laughing a bit at how the droid had just straight up zapped him.

R2 beeped out that he accepted the apology, then rolled off, telling them to follow. Walking past a giant door on the way to the hangar exit, Rey felt something in the force, but decided to ignore it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this basically ended up as a bit of an R2 appreciation chapter. It was originally part of a longer chapter that I decided to split because it got quite long, and because I love giving people cliffhangers.


	30. A Long Walk Through a Beautiful City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey properly start their tour through Theed.

They walked out of the hangar and into the interconnected royal palace, with R2 telling them stories of the Naboo crisis. Finn was slightly familiar with the place, having planned the mission to overthrow the local First Order forces in the area. Even so, seeing the inside of it was his own eyes was something else. It looked vastly different from any other places he had been, with massive rooms that had far too much space under the roof, with walls made of a softly coloured stone, accompanied with massive windows that gave the rooms a ton of natural light. Both Finn and Rey found it to be a bit too much, but it was admittedly a very nice place.

After a quick walk through the palace – they didn’t bother walking through the whole thing, they decided to head out to see the city itself. They walked outside to the river, and headed towards the waterfall. Standing by the guardrail, and bending over to look down, they were still as astonished by how far down it really was.

“Careful not to fall.” Finn told Rey as she leaned a bit too much over the side, eager to get a good look since she was busy flying when they arrived.

“I won’t fall, Finn.” Rey said, not really moving herself.

“Alright, just be careful.” Finn said, standing back a little. 

“It is some drop though. Wonder what made them build a city and a palace this close to a cliff.” Rey said, pondering a bit about the past decisions of the Nabooans. 

“Easy to defend, would be my guess. Can’t really be attacked from the ground on that side. Provided you can defend the front of the palace and control the airspace, this spot is pretty hard to attack.” Finn said, revealing a bit of his strategic mind.

“How did you manage to take it back, anyway?” Rey asked, turning around to talk directly with him. “I know you planned it, so how did you do it?”

“Well, the primary goal was to avoid civilian casualties, as with any other place we have taken back. They didn’t have many ground troops here, so it was just a matter of getting in and removing the leadership. City was operating fairly normally, with no checkpoints or heavy patrolling unlike most other First Order controlled places, so we were able to have a small group get into the city disguised as locals, while we had another group take the underwater passages that led them to surface a bit further up here.” Finn started to explain, before Rey cut him off.

“Wait, underwater passages?” Rey asked, not too familiar with the planet herself.

“Yes, there’s a bunch of them on Naboo, and one leads straight up here. We managed to get in and out of one through contact with the native Gungans, that reside out in the swamps. We borrowed one of their vehicles to get a few people up here. They were more heavily armed, while those disguised as locals were more lightly armed. The disguised soldiers were able to get into the palace undetected, then snuck through, taking out the few patrols around. They then radioed in backup as they were approaching the room where the First Order leader was. They were joined by the heavy troops and stormed the room, managing to force him to tell the few other soldiers in the city to surrender. Wasn’t really a tricky mission, as we had all the blueprints to the palace, and had direct reports over time from local informants about how many soldiers we had to expect, et cetera.” Finn explained, going a bit in detail about how he had pulled it off.

“Wow, that’s pretty impressive Finn. Nicely done on avoiding civilian deaths.” Rey said, proud of what Finn had accomplished.

“Nah, the soldiers deserve the credit for this one, I just gave them a rough idea about what to expect and how to get in. They did it perfectly, luckily for us, and for the people here. We broadcast it across the planet later that day to let the people know that they were safe, and it at least looks like things might be returning to normal here. Thank the force for that.” Finn said, deflecting the credit away from himself, as he usually did. 

Rey thought of arguing that he deserves some credit himself, but decided it wasn’t worth it. He was who he was, he wasn’t taking credit for anything unless he really had to, and she loved that about him. She closed the gap between them and gave him a peck on the lips instead, as an “I’m proud of you”-kiss. R2 however was getting impatient, and while he had recorded the story Finn told, he was eager to move on. He beeped out impatiently for them to get moving, forcing them to leave it at just the peck. 

They continued walking down the river, with R2 remarking that the city looked almost just like he remembered it from all those years ago. After a bit, they decided to walk into the city itself, to see how it looked, and maybe find some place to eat. They eventually found a square with various stores, where the locals seemed to be.

“Wow, guess there’s a bit to choose between here. What do you want to check out first?” Finn asked Rey, who was standing beside him, just as intrigued as he was.

“Ehm, I don’t know? What about that place?” Rey said, thinking quick and pointing out a place. “Looks like they’re selling something edible at least, but I can’t say I recognize it.” 

“Sure, let’s go and ask what they’re selling.” Finn said in agreement, happy to let her pick.

They walked the short distance over to the counter, where a lady was standing. “Excuse me, can I ask what it is you’re selling?” Rey asked carefully.

“We sell ice cream here. Wait, you don’t know what ice cream is?” The lady said, in total confusion about how Finn and Rey didn’t know about something as common as ice cream.

“No, we don’t have it where we’re from. We’d like to try it though.” Finn said, thinking quick to avoid telling who they really were.

“Oh, okay. Wasn’t expecting tourists this quickly after the war. Anything in particular that looks interesting to you?” The lady asked them.

“Uhm, anything you recommend?” Rey asked her.

“Well, everyone seems to like chocolate and vanilla, so I think that’s a safe pick at least.” The lady said, letting them pick something safe for now.

“Okay, we’ll have two of those then.” Rey said. Finn handed over the required credits, and then they got a small bowl each of ice cream, and sat down by a small round table, with R2 beside them. “Oh wow, it’s cold.” Rey said as she took the first taste. 

“That’s a new one. Guess it makes sense though, warm planet after all.” Finn added, then took a bite for himself. 

“Okay, this is really good.” Finn said, ice cream still in his mouth as he spoke.

“What I wouldn’t have done to have some of this on Jakku.” Rey responded, not stopping to swallow before she spoke. They ate up the rest of the ice cream in a hurry after that, both massively enjoying it. They decided to get a second round, as the first one had been rather small, and at that slightly slower, but still liking it a lot. Ice cream was definitely going on the list of things they needed to try again. 

After that, they decided to go check out a store that looked like it sold clothes, at Finn’s suggestion. They had gotten a few looks and some attention on their walk, some possibly because they didn’t look like they belonged based on their clothes, while some kids had been fascinated by seeing an astromech droid like R2, as his model was quite dated. They couldn’t do much about R2, but they could find some other things to wear, now that they finally had the chance to.

They walked inside, and started browsing for clothes, looking for something for Rey. They caught the attention of the shopkeeper, who approached them looking both aghast and surprised.  
“Young lady, what is that you are wearing?” She said, walking up to Rey like she was wearing an actual trash bag.

“Uh, what I always wear?” Rey said hesitantly, slightly confused and not wanting to cause a scene.

“Unbelievable. Looks like you’re dressed to walk in a desert or something.” The shopkeeper said, seeing how Rey was dressed mostly for practical reasons, but not liking the style.

“Well, I did grow up in one. This is just what I’m used to, and I like it.” Rey said more adamantly this time, not wanting to take any crap for her choice of clothing.

“Oh, my apologies then. I suppose I might have been a bit harsh. I think though that you should look into some other types of clothes while you are here on Naboo. I assume that’s why you are in here?” The shopkeeper said, this time being a bit nicer about it.

“Yeah, Finn wanted me to at least look at some other things.” Rey said, pointing out that it wasn’t really her idea.

“Well, how about I help you find something, and your boyfriend can go do something else meanwhile? I don’t really have men’s clothing here.” The shopkeeper said, wanting to help Rey alone.

“I want Finn here with me.” Rey said, not wanting to chase him away.

Finn sensed her intentions, and decided to interject himself. “No, that’s okay. I can go look for a place we can eat with R2, then I’ll come back for you. Okay?” 

“Okay. I’ll see you later.” Rey said, agreeing with him, albeit hesitantly. After that, Finn walked out of the store and found R2 outside, who had yet again attracted the attention of a kid.

“Come on R2, we need to find a place to eat. I’m afraid your little admirer will have to find something else to do.” Finn told R2.

“Is he yours?” The kid asked Finn.

“Well, not exactly, we’re kind of borrowing him for this trip as he used to work here on Naboo.” Finn said.

“Did he? What did he do? I’ve never seen a droid like this.” The kid said.

“He was in the Naboo Air Force, many years ago, during something called the Naboo Crisis. I’m sure you will learn about it one day.” Finn explained.

“Wait, you called him R2, right? Is this R2-D2?” The kid said more excitedly.

“Yup. That’s him.” He replied to the kid, then turned to R2. “Guess even the kids know who you are, huh.”

“Woooow.” The child said, amazed that a real hero of Naboo was right in front of him. 

“Come on R2, we need to go.” Finn told the droid, who started moving after him. “Nice seeing you guys, have a good day!” Finn told the kids as he walked off.

“Good day to you too mister, and R2!” The most vocal kid said.

Meanwhile inside, Rey and the shopkeeper had started looking at clothes, with Rey rejecting virtually everything. Finding her clothes was easier said than done, as it turned out. Finn on the other hand found a nice-looking place to eat, and was able to make sure they had a table ready for them in around half an hour. They were available right then and there, but he explained he needed to wait for his girlfriend first. After reserving the table, he walked back to the square, and sat down on a bench facing the store Rey was in to wait. Five minutes later she came out holding a paper bag.

Finn walked over to her as soon as she exited and greeted her. “So, what did you get?” He asked, curious to know what she had bought, as she hadn’t changed into it.

“Secret. I’ll show you later.” Rey said, keeping the bag closed so he couldn’t peek.

“But I want to see.” Finn said, his curiosity even bigger from being refused.

“You will see it later. Promise me you won’t try to take the bag or look into it.” Rey said, not wanting him to see it before she let him.

Finn sighed. “Fine. I won’t look at it.” He said, resigning to Rey’s will. “Anyway, I got us a table at a restaurant a bit further down the street. I’ll show you.” He said, offering his hand to Rey’s free left hand, which she willingly accepted and walked with him, hand in hand to the restaurant.

The restaurant was placed so that the outdoors eating area behind it was on the riverside, giving it a lovely afternoon view. This was their first time out eating together, and browsing the menu was exciting for both of them, and they barely knew what to pick. Eventually, they both found something to eat, both finding something they liked as they ate outside in the lovely weather, enjoying each other’s company, the view, and the weather.

After they finished up, they asked for where they could buy food that they could take with them home, and was pointed in the right direction. Finn was able to buy some of the fruit he and Rey had enjoyed so much, and also added some other varieties he wasn’t familiar with for them to try later. They were able to buy a decent amount of food, then started to head back to the Falcon before it got dark outside. 

They got back to the hangar soon enough, but as they walked past the giant door Rey had noticed earlier, Finn saw her frown, like her head was hurting. “Rey, are you okay?” He asked her, worried about her.

“Uh, yeah. I’m okay.” Rey replied, not wanting to talk about it. They got into the ship, and left their things, but instead of heading to the cockpit, Rey walked out of the ship again, and towards the door. 

“Rey, where are you going?” Finn asked, but didn’t get a response. Rey walked towards the door, like a moth into the flame. R2 decided to follow her, seeing as he had her weapon. Rey entered the door, as Finn left the ship, sprinting once he saw where she was going. Rey continued walking fast, like she was chasing something. She walked straight through the generator complex, heading into a specific room, with R2 and Finn not far behind her. 

She eventually reached a dead end, a room with a big round hole in it. Finn caught up with her half a minute later, interrupted by the security doors.

“Rey, why did you walk off like that?” Finn asked her.

“I…sorry…I felt something, something in this room. Something bad happened here Finn. Can you sense it?” Rey told him, slightly apologetic.

Finn focused, and tried to reach out, to sense the things around him. “I can sense that something happened here, nothing good, but I don’t know what. But Rey, please tell me things like this. I don’t like it when you just run off on me without a word, I get scared for you.” Finn said.

“I’m sorry, it’s a bad habit of mine. I will tell you from now on, I promise.” She said, genuinely feeling bad about it.

“Okay.” Finn said, accepting her apology.

“There’s something I need to do though. I need to know what happened here. It’s not dangerous, I promise.” Rey said, then bent down and touched the floor, trying to feel the history of the room, if any echoes of the forces remained here. Then suddenly, it all appeared to her, an elderly man with a light saber killed, and the killer later sliced in half by a younger jedi. 

“What did you find?” Finn asked her, once she stood up again. She looked a bit shaken, but otherwise okay.

“Finn, someone was killed here, it looked like a Jedi. And then the guy that killed him was cut in half by a younger jedi, and fell down the shaft. I could feel the pain of the younger jedi, but I could also feel the pain of the murderer. He didn’t die here, Finn. He fell down there, his legs cut off, and he didn’t die. The anger and hate that made him survive still lingers here. That’s what I sensed; I think.” Rey explained, sounding sad from it all.

“Are you okay?” Finn asked, more worried about her than what had happened here. 

“Yeah, I am, thanks for asking though.” Rey said, glad he cared so much. “I think I need to speak with that soldier from earlier again, he seemed to know a lot of the history of the place.” 

“Okay, let’s go find him.” Finn said, and they started to walk out of the generator complex. They could sense him in the palace, so they found him fairly quickly. Finn approached him, and explained that Rey had sensed what had happened there, and they asked him if he knew anything. He explained what he knew, that during the battle of Naboo, there was a fight in the generator room between two jedi and a sith, where the older jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn was killed, while the younger jedi, an Obi-Wan Kenobi had incapacitated the sith. The sergeant knew the sith had fallen down the shaft, and that he had been presumed dead despite the body never being found, but that was all he knew.

“Okay, thanks. That clears up a lot, I think.” Finn said. Rey however still looked unsure.

“I still feel something else about this place, something bad. Not the sith that fell down the shaft, but something else, someone else.” Rey said, not really sure what it was, though it seemed familiar to her.

“Well, I am no expert on sith or jedi stuff, but I think I might know who you’re talking about.” The sergeant said, now looking a bit more down.

“You do?” Rey asked, a bit surprised at that.

“The emperor, Palpatine, he was from Naboo. It’s one of the planet’s greatest shames, a truth we like to hide and want to forget. He used to serve here, as an advisor, and as the senator of Naboo, before he…” The sergeant started to explain, but stopped talking after Rey started to back off.

“Finn…I…I have to get away from here.” She said, then stormed off. Finn followed right after, leaving the sergeant confused behind them. Rey ran right to the Falcon, where she stopped inside, looking like a ghost.

“Rey, are you okay? Talk to me, please.” Finn pleaded with her, needing to know that she was okay.

“Finn, I can’t be here, this planet is his home, where he started all of this evil he brought on the galaxy. I can’t be here, not after all the pain he brought upon this place. I don’t belong here, not after all he did to hurt it.” Rey with a broken voice, tears appearing in her eyes. 

“Rey, his sins are not yours. You deserve to be here, more than anyone else. You aren’t responsible for what he did, you should feel like that. I don’t want you to feel like that. You stopped him, you sacrificed yourself for the galaxy, Rey. If anyone deserves to be here, to be praised by the galaxy wherever she goes, then it’s you.” Finn said, not wanting her to feel like she had to bear the sins of Palpatine.

“Even so, there’s all this evil, all this bad that happened here.” Rey said, seeing his point, but still feeling like the place reeked of evil.

“Good people have come from here too, Rey. Luke and Leia’s mom, for example. Wasn’t she the queen here during the crisis? She fought for democracy, and was apparently a really good person. R2 is from here too. And we had such a good time here today. You can find bad things everywhere, but you can’t look past all the good just because there’s been some bad.” Finn said, bringing a more positive perspective.

“You’re right, there is, but even so, if they knew, they wouldn’t want me here.” Rey said, referring to her birth family.

Finn took her hands, and held them while he looked into her teary eyes. “If they knew all the good you had done, all you did for them, they would throw a parade for you. It doesn’t matter what your blood is, what matters is what you do. That’s what defines you, Rey, nothing else. You once told me that I don’t know you. And maybe I don’t know all of you, but I know the most important part. I know that you’re Rey, my favourite person in the whole galaxy, a beautiful, kind, caring and wholly good person that always wants to help people, that never gives up on anyone.” Finn said, meaning all of it wholeheartedly.

Rey didn’t really know what to say, so she followed her instinct and removed her hands from his, and pulled him in for a hug, leaning over his shoulder. They hugged for a little bit, then Finn pulled away. 

“Come on, let’s go to the cockpit. I’ll take us back to the house.” Finn said, deciding he would fly this time, as Rey was still a bit shaken up.

“Okay. Thank you, Finn. For talking some sense into me. I needed to hear that.” Rey said, grateful that she had him, her emotional bedrock, her safety.

“Always, Rey.” Finn said, like him being there was the most natural and obvious thing in the world. He then walked to the cockpit and sat himself in the pilot’s seat, with Rey sitting down as the co-pilot without a fuzz.


	31. Out In The Fields

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey spend a day out in the grassy fields of the lake country.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did anyone order one large serving of fluff? No? Well I ordered it, and I hope you all like it.

It was just past 12 the following day, and Finn found himself sitting outside in a chair in the backdoor garden, relaxing. The garden had a small roofed porch with red tiles outside of the backside door of the house, with the area outside of the porch being grassy for a little stretch, reaching a little distance down to a small, private beach by the lake. The area was secluded, but beautiful, having a view of some fields in the distance, and some waterfalls even further away. There were no neighbours to speak of either, as the whole lake area was now under protected by the Naboo government, who wanted to keep the area intact and with limited building going on there. 

Leia had been lucky to have been able to purchase this place for a cheap price after Naboo was saved in the immediate aftermath of the Galactic Civil War, partially for helping in the rescue and for her role in the Rebel Alliance, and partially due to her family ties. Luke had been offered too, but had declined. What would happen to the place was a bit up in the air. Leia still held a fair amount of assets to her name, and there was no family to inherit it. Finn intended to look into it after he got back, but for now he found himself relaxing after a calm and somewhat late breakfast with Rey. It had been a bit odd to not wake up at set hours of the way, but he had started to see the appeal of waking up when you felt like it. Rey certainly had taken it to heart, sleeping more soundly and calmer than she ever had, like all the weight had been lifted off her shoulders in recent weeks. She had a bad moment the day before, but he had been able to calm her down again, and she seemed to have eased out of her thoughts of leaving the planet completely.

Where she was right as Finn sat there, eyes closed in the sun, thinking of how good life truly was, he did not know. Nor did he really need to know, he trusted that she would tell him if she went off anywhere or did anything in particular. Suddenly, he heard her voice from inside, breaking him from his bliss. 

“Finn?” He heard her call out questioningly.

Finn figured she just didn’t know where he had gone off to after their breakfast, as they had ended up going to different places after cleaning the dishes together. “Out here.” Finn responded, still not opening his eyes.

Rey then walked to the door opening, and leaned on it, only peeking her head out to speak with him a bit easier. “Finn, close your eyes.” She said, not really seeing his face as he sat turned away from the door out on the grass.

“Way ahead of you.” Finn said with a little chuckle, his eyes had been closed the whole time.

“Great. Okay, you remember that I bought something yesterday, right?” Rey asked him.

“Yeah?” Finn said, a tinge of excitement evident in his voice.

“Well, you’re about to see it. Keep your eyes closed, only open them when I say so.” Rey said, a bit strict in making sure he followed her instructions.

“Okay, I will.” Finn said in agreement, still keeping his eyes shut.

Rey walked out on the porch. Finn could sense her getting closer, and heard her bare feet walking on the tiles, until she reached the grass and stopped 1 meter in front of Finn. Finn kept his eyes close, waiting for her approval. “Okay, you can open your eyes now.” Rey finally said. 

Finn slowly opened his eyes, the sun shining a bit on them so he didn’t see instantly before his eyes adjusted and focused on Rey in front of him. She was wearing a white lace sundress, the top slightly revealing, with thin strings to hold it up at the top, with the bottom reaching to around her knees, revealing her bare feet and long legs, and her muscles arms completely.

Finn was in awe at seeing her dressed like that. He was so used to seeing Rey either in her usual style of clothing with her hair up, or with little to no clothing and hair down. Seeing her in a sundress, with her hair down behind her head was mind-blowing to him. He never thought he would see it, and though he loved her usual attire, he was completely in love with seeing Rey like this too. 

“Rey….wow, you look amazing…” Finn finally managed to say, after looking her up and down, barely believing that she was even wearing something like that. His eyes spoke the words he couldn’t say, and Rey noticed how he was simply admiring her with fondness and love. She had learned that after her first doubts about him checking her out like this. 

Rey giggled a bit, slightly shy about how he was looking at her, but she didn’t hide anything. “I was hoping you would like it.” She said.

“Like it? I love it Rey, you look fantastic.” Finn said lovingly, looking her right in the eyes as he stood up to stand in front of her.

“Thank you, I’m glad you do.” Rey said, then leaned forward to give him a peck on the lips.

“I just didn’t think this was your kind of clothing?” Finn said. He knew Rey had been offered a whole bunch of different clothes after Crait, but she had demanded to have something in her own style, with nothing flashy. Leia, of course, had been able to deliver just that. Thankfully, she had ordered up quite the amount of the same style of outfit for Rey, seeing how she liked it.

“Well, the shopkeeper tried to get me to look at all these red, orange and yellow fancy dresses, but that just isn’t me, you know. I finally saw this one, and I knew it was something that I could imagine myself in. Shopkeeper tried to say the colours weren’t very nabooan, but she kept quiet after I told her that I’m not nabooan and will wear whatever I want.” Rey explained, knowing why Finn was a bit surprised she was even wearing something like that.

Finn smiled at hearing how she had argued with the shopkeeper. Rey was herself, no matter what, and he loved that. “Well, I for one think you made an excellent choice. I love it.” Finn said, then leaned in and kissed her forehead. 

Rey smiled brightly from the kiss. “I was thinking, I want to see the fields. Think maybe we could fly out there and spend the day there?” She suggested.

Finn smiled back at hearing her idea. “That sounds great! I can pack us a bag of a bit to eat, if you find us something to sit on?” He suggested, imagining a picnic in the field with Rey in her sundress.

“Sure thing.” Rey said, then tiptoed off, before she suddenly stopped in front of the open door. “Oh, and bring some fruits!” She added, just to make sure.

“I will.” Finn responded, then got up to go inside and start packing for a picnic. 

Within 20 minutes, they were off, flying the Falcon the short distance to the fields on the other side of the lake, landing on a spot where the grass was shorter, then they walked to the grassy fields, where the shaak was eating and relaxing. They put down the giant blanket Rey had brought, then put down the basket Finn had been able to find on top of it.

They sat there chatting and sharing some of the various fruits Finn had brought, with them taking a part each. They found that they both still loved the one they had eaten their first day there, while they didn’t really like a bitter, green fruit Finn had bought the day before. They found that they shared a really similar taste in foods, both not really liking bitter foods, and really loving the sweeter fruits.

After a bit, they both laid down on the blanket, moving the basket to the side. They laid there, side by side with their hands joined, looking up at the skies. Eventually, Finn started to doze off a bit like he had earlier. Rey felt his grip loosen, and shuffled herself a bit closer, putting her head on his chest and dozing off a bit herself.

Finn woke up sometime later, feeling something above him, looking at him. His vision was still blurry, but he assumed it was Rey. Then he felt Rey, laying on his chest, still asleep. That meant…Finn desperately tried to clear his eyes, and then finally he saw it. It was a shaak, standing over them and looking at them. Finn startled a bit upon seeing it, backing himself up a bit on instinct, shaking Rey awake from the movement.

“Finn, what the hell?” Rey said, a bit grumpy from being woken up like that, suddenly not laying on Finn at all.

“That..thing was standing there, looking at us like we were a piece of meat.” Finn explained. The animal had gotten startled itself, and moved a bit away, but was watching carefully from a few meters away.

“What thing?” Rey asked, not understanding what he meant.

“You know, those animals.” Finn tried to explain, not knowing their names.

“Oh, the shaaks. They’re herbivores, Finn. They don’t eat meat at all.” Rey said, calming Finn down a bit. He wasn’t too used to animals yet, so having one he didn’t know that close was slightly terrifying.

“Oh.” Finn simply responded, feeling like a bit of an idiot.

Rey stood up, pulled out some straws from the ground, and walked calmly over to the shaak while Finn watched her. She reached out the straws to the shaak, who accepted them, taking a bite of the little bundle Rey had pulled up. “See? They only eat grass. It was probably just curious, that is all.” Rey said, smiling back at Finn.

Finn sighed. He knew he had overreacted a bit. “Okay, you’re right.” Finn conceded.

“It’s okay, Finn. Come, you can feed it if you want to.” Rey said, and gestured for him to come closer. Finn did as she said, and offered the animal some straws, which it gratefully took. 

“How did you know?” Finn asked her as he watched the shaak eat.

“Well, I didn’t sense any threat from it. And I did some research on the lake area, so I knew about them, and that they aren’t dangerous.” Rey explained to him, standing beside him to watch the shaak.

After that, they walked closer to the water, where they dipped their feet in a little, as they walked along the shoreline.

“It’s so beautiful out here. I could stay here forever, really.” Rey said a bit absentmindedly, looking out over the area, seeing the vast lakes, and the waterfalls in the distance.

“Yeah, it really is. Makes me happy to see you like this, you deserve to relax a bit.” Finn agreed, walking alongside her, hand in hand. 

“I’ve noticed it in you too, you know. You’re more relaxed here. At base you’re always doing something, but out here, things are calm. I think we deserve some calm in our lives.” Rey said. She sensed it in the force that he was calm and happy out here, and she saw it on him too. There was nothing keeping him stressed or that was forced upon him.

“Yeah, it’s been good to get away from things. Don’t get me wrong, I love the work I do, that I can help people, but it has helped a lot to just get some distance from it.” Finn admitted. He had been pretty fatigued from the all efforts during the war, and the continued work in the immediate aftermath, and the situation with Rey. He felt he had found a very happy solution with Rey, but his job as a general kind of got in the way of both that and his force training. 

“You know, when the First Order is truly gone, and the Resistance can go over to simply being a military force for the republic, you could consider doing something else.” Rey suggested, having thought a bit about it.

“I mean, eventually I would like to, yes, but I don’t even know what I would do. Military has been my whole life, you know.” Finn said. It sounded appealing to him, but the thought of being a “normal” person was also strange to him. What did even a normal person do?

“I get that, I do. Life has been pretty odd for me too, everything I knew was how to survive in a desert. Suddenly I’m involved in all this stuff that is way bigger than me, and has been going on long before I was born. I can tell you what I want to do, if you want?” Rey said. She was to some degree just as confused as he was about life in general.

“I want to hear that, yes.” Finn said, stopping so they could talk face to face. They hadn’t really talked about the future before, what to do, so he was curious, but also nervous about what Rey would say.

“I would like to settle down somewhere, somewhere calm, not in the middle of a city, and just live. I want to see the galaxy too, but I want somewhere that I can return to, and call home. And I was hoping that maybe you would like that too.” Rey said hesitantly, finally opening up her hopes for the future.

Finn took her hands, and held them tightly, but not too tight. “Rey…I…would love to settle down somewhere with you. I would want nothing more than that. But what about your jedi things? I thought maybe you wanted to rebuild the jedi order, and teach?” Finn said. He knew how devoted she was to learning about the jedi, expanding her knowledge and understanding of the force, and couldn’t really imagine her just giving that up.

“ _Our_ jedi things, Finn. I want to continue to learn, but I’m not ready to teach a bunch of kids, not yet. For now, I want to learn with you. Maybe in the future I will try to pick up the pieces of what Luke did, but I don’t want it to end like that. I want to get myself prepared before I ever do that, and hopefully I can learn alongside you.” Rey said honestly, looking him right in those deep, brown eyes of his as she spoke. She had realized with Finn that teaching isn’t always easy, some things might not work. The last thing she wanted was to misguide some poor kid because she wasn’t ready to teach them properly yet. And she didn’t really see Finn as her student either. He knew less than her about the force, yes, but in life he was her equal.

“Rey, I, of course I will learn with you. I want my future to be with you. Us two, together.” Finn replied earnestly. Rey meant too much to him, she was the only thing he was certain that he wanted to be part of his life after everything was said and done. He had friends, obviously, but Rey was so much more than that by now.

Rey smiled brightly upon hearing that. She was happier right now than she could ever imagine. Growing up, the last thing she ever imagined doing was to fall in love, after seeing all the horrible people on Jakku, yet here she was madly in love with a great man. “You know, the old Jedi texts forbids attachment, and apparently that’s what the Jedi lived by.” Rey suddenly said, as that thought came up in her mind.

Hearing that got Finn a bit nervous. He knew how devoted she was to the Jedi teachings, but he really hoped this was the exception. “And what do you think?” He said, not so subtly wanting her to think for herself.

“I….think that ship already sailed for me. The whole intention is that attachment makes you vulnerable to the dark side, as it can be manipulative and exploit any weaknesses you have. I get the thinking behind it, but I also think forcing someone to detach themselves from love, and then expecting them to protect all the good in the galaxy make little sense. I know that if I tried to do that, it would hurt me more than I would benefit, and I would be more vulnerable. And I don’t think teaching others to stop loving others is something I want to do either.” Rey explained carefully, showing that she had thought about that particular rule, but decided it wasn’t one she could follow or teach to others.

“Oh thank the force.” Finn said, releasing a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

“Finn, you don’t need to worry about me leaving or not loving you because of the force. The force brought us together, and together, we are much better than alone. And I love you so much, Finn. Luke told me that his master used to teach him that fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering. Suffering can then lead you to the dark side. I know, that if I were to force myself to not be attached to you, I would suffer. I can’t do that, ever. Not to you, and not to myself.” Rey reassured him, reiterating that he had absolutely nothing to fear.

“I love you, Rey. And I agree completely, that rule isn’t something to live by. I don’t want to live by that, and I am glad you don’t want to either.” Finn said, then gently kissed her forehead. 

“I’m happy you agree. There’s some other stuff I’m not sure about, but we can talk about that later. And I love you too Finn, I love you so much.” Rey said, unable to shake her smile from her face. Finn saw the beautiful smile he loved so much, and it made him smile just as widely in return. They stood there, hand in hand, smiling at each other fondly, before Rey finally broke their little moment, wiping his smile off of him the best way she knew.


	32. Addiction, pt. 1/2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey have a problem, of the good kind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter is pure smut. If that's not your thing, you know what to do.

In the days following their little excursion to the fields, on thing had become apparent: they were addicted. It had started out there in the fields, after they broke their kiss. They found themselves both desperately needing air, but at the same time both desperately needing more. They managed to scramble themselves back to the blanket, with them tumbling over, Finn landing on his back with Rey on top, their kissing blissfully uninterrupted by the fall. 

Their hands weren’t much more passive, feeling each other through their thin layers of clothing, eager to get it all off. It didn’t take long before they were flipped over, with Finn replacing Rey’s mouth with her pussy, his head ducked in under her dress as his tongue went to work on her, licking up the sweet taste of her as Rey lay there squirming from the pleasure. They were in the middle of a field, animals not far from them, and with the small chance that someone might actually find them there. Yet despite that, they didn’t care, or were too distracted with each other to care, the only thing on their mind was making themselves and their opposite feel good. They never fully undressed, but as Rey’s underwear went flying and Finn fucked her, it was like both their filters and shame had gone out the window. 

The very next day, they found themselves out in the lake, bathing. Rey had dressed herself in the new swimwear she had bought along with the sundress, a two piece with a white triangle bikini and matching bottoms. Finn was his dark blue swimming trunks, that he had gotten hold of sometime after Crait. Rey had seen him in them before the first time they went swimming, and had noticed his body, but this time, just like last time they went swimming, she completely failed to hide it, staring down his muscles like they were the last piece of food left on the whole planet. 

Finn meanwhile was just as enamoured by Rey. He had been staring at her ever since he joined him out in the water, showing off her new swimwear. He had seen her in swimwear before, but not like _this_. This was different. Last time, she had just worn some swimwear that was practical, that covered everything. This time, she was wearing something he never imagined he would see her in, just like he never imagined seeing her in a sundress. This time, she was wearing something revealing, that showed off both sides of her so well that Finn had a tent in his swim trunks. 

Despite that, they had been able to act normally for a while, with Rey joining the swimming that Finn was doing. She wasn’t as good at it yet, but she was getting there. After a few laps, they stopped in an area where the water reached their shoulders, allowing them to stand and talk without issues. They stood there, talking with smiles on their faces, happy to be spending this time together, and happy to be swimming in clear, warm water, unlike the slightly grumsy water of Ajan Kloss. Eventually though, a splashing war started, first a small splash from Rey, then a bigger one from Finn. They kept on splashing, until Rey pushed a solid amount of it onto Finn with the force. Finn, seeing that, faked resignation, before closing the small distance between them and tackling Rey into the water. 

They resurfaced quickly, Rey gasping in slight shock that he had done that. “Finn!” She said in feigned anger. 

“What, you used the force, I used my body.” Finn said, alluding to that she wasn’t playing fair, so neither would he. 

Rey smirked. Him mentioning his body got her eyes back where they were earlier. But this time, she didn’t hesitate, and attacked him in return, grabbing hold of his head and pulling his mouth to her own. She kissed him like a starved animal finally getting a bit of food, even though she had gotten plenty. It was rough, but _hot_ , and she wanted more. Finn evidently did too, his hands wrapped around her, feeling her butt. Rey was no worse, her hands all over his toned chest as they continued to make out like madmen.

Finn soon broke the kiss, but before Rey managed to complain, he started kissing her throat, with Rey allowing him free access. His hands kept moving too, moving to her front. He squeezed her boobs through the bikini, then slipped his hands under them to get better access as he squeezed them further, loving the feel of them in his hands. Rey moaned from the feel of his lips on her throat and his hands on her breasts, and decided she wasn’t going to be any worse. She reached around, and squeezed his fit ass like he had done to her, then moved her hands back to his front, searching out the tent in his swim trunks.

Finding the water a bit too deep to do this elegantly, Finn walked her to a slightly more shallow area with his hands on her sides, the water now reaching a bit over their stomachs. He then resumed his work on her breasts, but decided that the hot, but offensive clothing had to go, and deftly untied it from her back and tossed it back to the shore, before putting his mouth to her nipples, suckling her like he loved to do. Rey meanwhile had her hand in his trunks, jerking him off as well as she could within the limited space down there. 

Rey then stopped, and pulled at his trunks. Finn understood without a word spoken, and started to remove it, stepping out of it, and then tossing that too away to the beach. As soon as it was off, Rey started jerking him off properly, her movements causing the water to splash, as she increased the tempo with the endless space she now had. Finn went back to his favourite activity, and resumed sucking and touching her perky breasts, all the while reaching a hand down to her bottoms, slipping a finger inside of her, while thumbing her clit. It was tricky to do all at once, but Rey’s moans from his fingers and mouth pleasuring her made it well worth the effort it took to do that, as Rey continued to jerk him off.

“Finn, I need you.” Rey moaned out breathlessly, stopping what she was doing to his by now rock hard cock.

“Here?” Finn asked, a bit out of breath himself.

“Yeah, fuck me right here Finn. I need you inside of me, now.” Rey exclaimed, not caring one bit where they were. She wanted him inside of her, preferably instantly.

“Uh, how?” Finn asked, not sure how they would pull off sex in the water. 

Rey didn’t say anything, but bent down and took off her bottoms, tossing them away. She then jumped onto him, wrapping her legs around his body. Finn was a bit surprised, but caught her. He then understood her plan, and held her ass up with one hand, while lining up his cock with the other. He found her opening, a put the tip in. Rey felt he was just barely inside of her, and let herself down a tiny bit, sinking onto his thick cock. It felt a bit odd, doing it in the water, but at the same time really good. Finn started to slowly move his hips, pushing in and out of her. It was far heavier in the water, but he was able to find a rhythm soon with the assistance of Rey moving her hips to the best of her ability to help out.

After a bit, Finn felt like he was tiring from both holding Rey and trying fuck her in the water. “Rey, I can’t hold you up for much longer.” He said with a breathy voice.

“Okay, we can get back on land.” Rey said, understanding that it was a bit of a task to fuck her like that. It was something she wanted to try again, just maybe out of the water and with something else to make it easier. 

Finn nodded, then lifted her up slightly so he was no longer inside of her. He then carried her to land, and gently put her down on the towel he had laid down on the grass earlier.

“Let me.” Rey said and pulled Finn down onto her, before flipping them around, happy to take initiative on this one. She straddled his hips, and positioned herself while holding a hand on his cock, lining him up with her entrance. Rey sunk down on him slowly, gradually taking him in before starting to pick up the pace. Finn assisted as best he could, but was pretty spent after his laps and fucking her in the water. Thankfully, Rey was no slouch either, and she took complete control, riding him with a passion. Finn couldn’t help but admire her as she did, she was soaking wet from their swimming, water dripping down from her body and onto him, but her wet body looked fabulous in the sunlight. He could see her body shining, small droplets trailing down her body, and he could see her smile as she rode him.

Finn didn’t last as long as he wanted to that time, spilling deep inside of her as she sunk down on him. He could see it slowly pouring out of her, down the shaft of his own cock, smearing them both. Rey was pretty spent herself from the effort, and after moving her legs slightly to a more comfortable position, collapsed all over him, with his cock still inside of her. They laid there for a while, drying off in the sunlight, with Finn only reaching for the second towel to place over them both so they wouldn’t get too cold.

A bit later, they found themselves in the spacious shower, needing to clean up after the mess they had both made earlier. They started rinsing themselves in soap, both going at it like they were in there alone. But then Rey suddenly asked if Finn could do her back. Finn gladly agreed, and grabbed the soap, placing himself behind her to begin rinsing her back. He carefully spread the soap all over her back, feeling how muscular her back truly was. Rey enjoyed his hands working on those hard to reach areas, how soft and gentle he was about it. She loved his hands on her in general, how they despite all his training had stayed so soft and nice, lovely both when he held her hands, when he touched her hair, and when he touched her body with them. At first, she hadn’t liked him even holding her hand, but now she felt herself seeking his touch whenever she could. 

Thinking of him touching her as he rinsed her back, Rey closed her eyes and leaned her head backwards a bit, enjoying it far too much. Wanting him to go further, she backed up a bit, so they were skin against skin. She started moving her hips, rubbing her ass against him, slowly turning him from half hard to completely hard. 

“Rey…what are you doing?” Finn queried. They had just done this outside, and he wasn’t sure if he could go another round.

“I want your hands on me Finn, and I want you inside of me.” Rey said with a horny, but demanding tone.

“Rey, I don’t know if I can do this again..” Finn said, seriously doubting that he could.

“Mmm, doesn’t feel like that’ll be a problem.” Rey said, moving her ass against his now completely hard cock.

Finn thought about it for around two seconds, and realized she was right, he was always ready for more with her. She had that ability to get him horny within a second if she tried, and once she had learned just how attracted he truly was to her body, and how she had nothing to be ashamed of, she had really started to use it. Without a word, he reached his hands around her body, and cupped her perky breasts, squeezing them lightly, feeling them fit perfectly in his hands as he rubbed his thumbs over her quickly hardened nipples. 

Finn bent forwards, kissing her neck as he continued to touching her boobs, with Rey rubbing herself against him, their bodies intertwined in a hot, soapy mess. Finn reached one hand down to her clit, and started rubbing it, like he had learned that Rey absolutely loved. He snuck a finger inside of her, hooking it so he could feel the inside of her at the tip of his finger, his thumb rubbing small circles on her clit, while he held her left boob in his other hand and continued sucking at her neck. Rey could barely believe that he was able to pull all that off at once, but she wanted him inside of her again.

“Finn, fuck me.” Rey demanded over her moans from all the touching.

Finn wasn’t difficult to ask, and let go of her to do just that. He reached down to his cock, and searched for her opening. Finding the right one, he put the tip into her from behind, causing a slight gasp from Rey. It wasn’t an angle they had done before, but Finn was happy to find new ways to do it, as exploring Rey had quickly become his favourite activity. He pushed into her slowly, careful not to hurt her. 

“You okay?” He asked.

“Yes, go faster.” Rey replied.

Finn happily obliged, and sped up, pushing in and out of her in a steady rhythm while his arms were wrapped around her, hands resting on her breasts, keeping them tight as he fucked her. He soon increased his speed further, with Rey holding her arms against the wall to keep steady, with their fucking producing loud sounds of wet skin crashing together. It was an odd position for Rey too, but as it usually did, her body accepted Finn inside of her in no time, and there wasn’t any pain, only the pleasure of Finn fucking her hard. She smiled a bit with her eyes closed as he continued, knowing that she had been completely right about him going another round. 

After a bit, Finn felt himself getting close, and pulled out of her while letting go of her, and spilled himself on her ass instead. It wasn’t as much as earlier, in truth he was surprised he had anything left after their session earlier, but he didn’t want to force her to clean up even more inside of herself, having just done it minutes prior. 

“Finn, why’d you pull out?” Rey turned around and asked, a bit surprised about it.

“Didn’t want to make you clean up again.” Finn replied shortly, still a bit out breath.

“You don’t need to do that for me, Finn. You know I like it, and we’re in the shower, cleaning up isn’t an issue.” Rey said, a bit disappointed to not get the finish she wanted. 

“You know, you are a bit crazy.” Finn said while shaking his head a bit. 

“Crazy about you. You make me this way, Finn.” Rey said honestly, smiling widely at him. She had no reason to hide that, and with them far away from any other people, they had no reason to be shy or hold anything back, as she saw it. Only one that knew was R2, but he had gracefully understood what was going on and retreated to the Falcon. 

“Well, I’m no better. I can’t help myself when you’re around. I want you so bad, all the time.” Finn admitted to her. 

“Mmmm, feeling is mutual, _General_.” Rey said with a flirty tone, then leaned forward and kissed him. They were both pretty spent down below, but there was still some energy left for kissing as the warm water poured down Finn’s back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued!


	33. Addiction, pt. 2/2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn has problems focusing while meditating with Rey. Channeling his competitive side, Rey challenges him in order to make him focus.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of the past chapter, so subject matter is the same. If smut isn't your thing, then this chapter isn't for you. I promise, we'll get back to moving the plot along soon. Just let the space orphans fuck for a bit.

The previous day’s events led them to where they were now. They were trying to resume meditation, with Rey insisting that they had to do at least _something_ while they were away from base. Besides, it gave them both the chance to feel different surroundings, to sense new things. They sat there across from each other on the grass, and for a while, everything went as normal. They sensed the fish deep in the lake, the shaak they had met two days earlier, the grass around them, all pulsing with life, with no threats around. 

After a while, Finn couldn’t resist opening his eyes. He looked across at Rey, with her closed mouth smile as she sat there, her eyes closed and legs crossed. He looked at how the stray hairs that hadn’t gotten into either of her three buns twisted around each other in front of her ears, how focused yet relaxed she looked. She looked so serene and beautiful where she sat, and he couldn’t help but look at her with fondness.

“Finn, keep focused.” Rey said without opening her eyes, sensing his focus wasn’t where it should be.

“Eh, sorry. Got distracted.” Finn replied, his eyes averting to her face again.

Rey opened her eyes to look at him as he said that. “Finn, you’ve been distracted ever since we got here.” She said, looking at him with that serious, slightly annoyed look on her face.

“Sorry, it’s just….it’s so nice seeing you like this, so peaceful and happy. It’s hard not to look.” Finn said honestly. He didn’t mean anything bad by it, but seeing her peaceful and happy made him happy.

“Finn, if you can’t focus just because I’m here, then how are you supposed to use the force in an actual fight, with lots happening around you? You need to be able to focus when you’re supposed to.” Rey said, a bit harshly.

“I’m focused if I want to.” Finn said back flatly.

“Oh really?” Rey scoffed. 

“Really.” Finn replied, dead serious.

“Okay, then do it now. Meditate while I distract you. Up for it?” Rey said, challenging him to back up his words.

“Deal. Bring it, Rey. I was trained to ignore every sound around me when I had to sleep.” Finn said, revealing that ignoring noise was no problem to him. He then closed his eyes, intent on blocking her out completely. 

Rey smirked at seeing him like this. She knew he was a competitor at heart, given that he had not so subtly brought up that he was top of his class a few times in the past, and how seriously he had taken her obstacle course on Ajan Kloss. She wasn’t going to let him win this easy though. Her first plan was to start fiddling with her light saber around him, igniting it and doing some slick moves around the lawn, careful not to actually hit Finn with it. Finn, to his credit, seemed to block her out no problem, not even bothering when she faked a fall to see if that got his attention. 

Seeing that her moving around wasn’t doing the trick, she moved to the next step. Shocking him out of it with noise. She went inside, and rummaged around until she found the blaster he had brought for safety reasons. She brought it back outside, where Finn was still sitting peacefully, took off the safety, then fired it in the air. Nothing. She sensed on his face that he had noticed, but he had used her training, and reached out with the force to identify if there were any threats. There wasn’t any, so he had continued his meditation.

Rey then moved on to the next step: distracting him with the force. She sat down again herself, then lifted herself off the ground using the force, and lifted the discarded saber, blaster and some plants with her up in the air. She sat there in the air, but Finn did not seem to mind one bit. She tried dropping the saber and blaster down on the ground, careful that the safety was on for both of them, but to no avail. She lowered herself and the plants down again, and pondered about how she could distract him. 

Suddenly, she got an idea. It was her that had distracted him, after all, so she would just make herself hard to ignore. She knew he could sense his surroundings, what was happening, so she decided to use that. Rey started by taking off her armwraps, taking both off and carelessly tossing them at him. They slipped off him quickly, but Finn didn’t seem to mind. Rey continued the process, removing her armband and belt. As part of her devious plan, she slipped a hand into her pants, and started to slowly touch herself. She started rubbing at her clit, making low moans, knowing full well that Finn could hear it. He seemed to be ignoring it, so she continued, rubbing herself more intently, pleasuring herself right in front of him while staring down his gorgeous face, moaning ever so slightly louder to catch his attention.

She knew however that just giving him the sound wasn’t enough, she also had to give him a mental imagine that he couldn’t ignore. Rey started to remove her tunic, and then slowly took off her breastwraps, tossing them both away. She sat there, with only her pants left on, while Finn still meditated. She knew that he knew, but she had to go even further to catch his attention. Rey started touching her own breast, knowing that Finn had become completely infatuated with them, unable to keep his hands and mouth away whenever he could and they weren’t going to sleep. She hadn’t exactly loved touching them herself in the past, but Finn’s absolute adoration of her body had helped to give her more confidence in her own body. 

She put one hand on her breast, and one hand on her clit, rubbing herself as best she could with her pants still on, while she emulated what Finn usually did to her boobs, having found that it felt really good. Finding that touching herself with her pants still on was a bit tricky, she laid down on her back and pulled them off herself. She then sat back up, and started fiddling with her underwear. She pulled at it, and released it, causing it to smack slightly against her skin. She then pulled it off, and very carefully threw it right in Finn’s face, so he would smell how wet she was. With no clothes left to obstruct, Rey started fingering herself, imagining Finn fucking her right there on the grass as she pulled one finger in and out of herself. Gradually, she went faster, then added another finger to the mix, imagining that it was Finn’s cock inside of her that was fucking in and out of her while massaging her breast, and projecting that imagine in her head to Finn. 

“Ooohhh, Finn.” She moaned out louder than she needed to, just to try to catch him attention.

She failed, but she was succeeding at getting off on the imagine she was making in her head, she could hear how wet she was from the noise she made with her own fingers, and she could feel it too, her fingers were completely soaked. Quickly, she decided that enough was enough. She jumped up, and closed the distance between them, attacking his lips with a ferocious kiss of pure hunger. 

Finn’s eyes shot open from the feeling of Rey’s mouth on his own, and he pulled away from the kiss. “Rey, what the hell!? That’s not fair.” He exclaimed, feeling like adding actual kissing to the challenge was a bit too far.

“Shut up and just fuck me Finn.” Rey demanded. She was so wet, so horny from trying to distract him with her own body, and now she couldn’t wait any longer.

Finn’s eyes glanced down from her face, seeing her completely naked body, how wet her pussy was. He looked back up at her, and saw that look of hers, her normally hazel eyes replaced with blown pupils and a look of pure want. She wanted him bad, and just wasn’t taking no for an answer. Accepting that as proof of victory, Finn felt that it was okay to celebrate, and kissed her softly. Rey however quickly turned his soft kiss into a hungry make-out, her mouth demanding more and more from his big, soft lips. 

Once they broke the kiss, Finn quickly discarded his shirt, prompting the untamed animal in front of him to attack it with her mouth. Her mouth left a wet trail of kisses all over his front, moving from his collarbone, down to his chest, and down along his toned stomach. There was both a mix of hunger and urgency in how she did it, she wanted all of it, but it wasn’t what she wanted most. Once she reached his pants, she tugged at it. “Finn, get it off.” She demanded. Finn wasn’t hard to ask, and stood up, taking off his pants and underwear.

Rey saw how hard he already was, and smiled. “Fuck me Finn.” She demanded again. This wasn’t a time for foreplay, Finn was already hard as could be, and she was soaking wet, so there was no need. As much as he wanted his hands and mouth on her body, he agreed. Rey wasn’t waiting though, and jumped up from the ground and onto Finn, wrapping her legs around him. Finn instinctively caught her, then carried her inside. Like reading each other’s minds, Finn carried her into the bedroom, but instead of placing her on the bed, he pushed her up against the wall and looking into her eyes. Her hazel eyes were completely blown, staring him down with lust. He couldn’t see himself, but he imagined he wasn’t much better. 

Finn lined himself up to her wet entrance, and put the tip in. Knowing he wasn’t exactly lubricated, he pushed himself into her slowly, letting himself be coated by her taste. Once he felt suitably ready, he met her wishes, and started moving faster, pushing her hard against the wall as he fucked into her with a passion, starting to mirror Rey’s animalistic lust in his actions. Holding her up against the wall was far easier than in the water, and Rey loved it, as he was hitting just the right spot with each deep thrust. 

“Ahhhh, Finn, I’m close.” She managed to say between moans after a bit, feeling like all the touching she had done and now Finn fucking her was sending her towards the edge. Finn reached down to her clit, and messily rubbed it as he continued fucking into her, the wall behind her shaking for each thrust he did. It didn’t take long before Rey was right at the edge, and as Finn hit her spot with one last thrust, she completely let go.

“Ahhhhhh Finnnnnnnnn!” Was all she managed to say, as her orgasm took over her body, her eyes closing in pure pleasure as her pussy clenched around Finn’s cock as if she was never letting go, and her arms hugging him equally tight. Right after, her body slumped completely over his, with Finn now being the only thing stopping her from falling straight to the ground.

Finn lifted her up properly and pulled out of her, then carried her tired body to the bed, putting her down gently. He bent down and kissed her forehead, happy to see her blissful face after her orgasm. He then stood up again, and turned to go to the bathroom.

“Finn? Where are you going?” He heard a tired Rey ask as he approached the bedroom door.

He turned around to answer, and saw her turned on her side, facing him. “Just going to get cleaned up, I’ll be back soon.” 

“Why? You’re not done?” Rey said, confused that he would just stop before he was finished, seeing that he was still hard.

“Don’t worry about it, this one was for you, not for me.” Finn said, meaning well. As long as she got to finish, he was happy.

“No, Finn, come back here. Either we both finish or nobody does. Fuck me, until you finish. Besides, you pulled out yesterday.” Rey said, wanting him deep inside of her every chance she got. 

“You sure?” Finn asked, seeing as she had already orgasmed and looked quite spent.

“Yes, come back here.” Rey replied without hesitation.

Finn returned to her, smiling a bit to himself. He couldn’t really believe his luck. When they had first met, she was hesitant to even hold his hand. None of them had done anything sexual outside of their own hands before their first time. And now she was like an untamed animal, hungry for his touch, and demanding even more. And only for him. He walked to the edge of the bed, and pulled her closer to him by her legs. He bent down and kissed her once again, this time a soft and happy kiss right on her mouth, grateful for his fantastic, if slightly addicted girlfriend.

Finn smiled down at her, and then lined himself up to her entrance. His cock was still wet from earlier, and Rey likewise. He pushed into her opening, then started to settle into a slow rhythm. Rey reached her hand down to her clit, and started touching herself, rubbing in slow, uneven circles as Finn fucked her. Finn increased the intensity a bit, fucking into her so that the sounds of their skin could easily be heard outside. Rey felt herself getting overstimulated, but was loving it. Her body was completely tired, yet the feeling of him hitting her spot as he fucked her hard and her own work on her clit was making her feel indescribable things.

Finn felt himself getting close too, with Rey’s absolutely glowing skin after her orgasm just turning him on even more. “Rey, I’m close.” He muttered. He figured she wanted him inside of her, but he felt like he should warn her just in case.

“Good.” Rey merely replied with a breathy voice, not feeling like she had the capability to use any of her vocabulary right at that moment.

Finn continued pushing into her, until he felt his own rhythm getting erratic. Finally, he reached his own limit, pushing deep into her as he spilled himself into her with a deep moan. With his cock twitching inside of her as he released, Rey reached her own limit again, joining the chorus of moans as her walls clenched around his cock again. This time though, it was different. She felt herself spilling, her own fluids pushing Finn’s out, smearing his cock and her pussy in a mixture of them both.

“Holy shit, Rey, did you just?” Finn asked, looking down at her opening, seeing both their juices spilling out of her while he was still sheathed inside of her.

“I…I don’t know, but wow, that….was something else Finn.” Rey said, having just enough energy to look down at herself, not really knowing what had just happened.

“Some training huh.” Finn chuckled, alluding to what this had originally begun with.

“Certainly feels like I’ve trained. That was amazing.” Rey replied, feeling completely worn out from that, in a good way.

“Yeah, that was really something else, you feel so incredible.” Finn said, feeling like she deserved a fair few compliments for enduring that.

Rey looked up at him with a fond smile “Thank you, Finn.” 

“For what?” Finn asked, with a slightly confused look.

“For making me feel like this. For loving my body, and making it feel so incredible. I didn’t like my body, didn’t think it was anything special, but with you, I feel so beautiful, and I feel so good. So, thank you Finn. For making me feel like something special.” Rey said, admitting that her view of her own looks hadn’t always been so positive, but that Finn alone had changed that.

“You are special, Rey. You are the most beautiful, gorgeous and fantastic person I have ever met, and you feel incredible. You are the girl of my dreams, my favourite person in the universe, and I love you so much Rey.” Finn said honestly, never ever tiring of declaring his love for her.

“I love you too, Finn. You’re so kind and caring, always looking out for me and everyone else. And you are beautiful, handsome, and you feel amazing too. You are my absolute favourite person too, Finn, and I love you so much.” Rey responded, not holding back her love either.

They didn’t have any more words to say, and met with a deep kiss instead. They were addicted to each other, and it felt so good.


	34. Not a Ball of Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey begin their trip back to normal life, and the inevitable happens.

A few days later, it was finally time to return back to base. As they packed their stuff into the Falcon and did the last few checks, they both had a bit of a sad feeling about it. It wasn’t that returning to base was that bad, but they had finally gotten a taste of freedom, for the first time in their lives. And after only a week, it was over, and it was back to a life of duty. They understood that they still had important things to do, Finn had his plan to close down the stormtrooper academies and help the troopers adjust to life outside of war, while Rey had to continue her studies in the force. And neither of them had been extremely productive regarding their training while they were there, though they had gotten a bit more done in the last few days.

Despite their sense of duty, they couldn’t help but feel like they wanted to stay. Rey had noticed how Finn was able to completely close out work from his mind, in contrast to how he would usually come back tired from his shifts back on base. After combining that with their training, he was usually completely worn out by the end of the day. But now he had so much energy, and Rey had definitely enjoyed helping him spend it. Finn meanwhile had seen how happy and relaxed Rey finally was. She was always a bit on edge around base, but here she always had a smile on her face, with no worries or anything bothering her. 

They both knew that this also had been sort of a test of their relationship. How would they work together outside of war, work and duty? If left alone for a given time, with only each other to talk with, would that work? The answer had been a resounding _“yes, it does work”_ , they weren’t just comfortable being alone together, they were happier than ever before. It wasn’t necessarily that they had doubts about their relationship, but neither had known how the other one, let alone themselves would react to living like this. 

The trip had been a bit of a déjà vu for R2, however. He watched the young couple do the last-minute checks and cleaning of the house, thinking about the last time he had been on Naboo with a couple. They reminded him on them, in a sense, but he believed that this one could last. He had mostly stayed clear whenever they were being intimate, but he saw from their interactions that they genuinely cared for each other, and were both good people that only wanted good for others. Anakin and Padmé had been similar, but he could see how Anakin had issues with anger, and how Palpatine mentoring him had affected his political view. Finn and Rey didn’t have that. Rey had been able to reject Palpatine, and now knew how he operated, how he influenced and fooled people. If he were to reappear, she wouldn’t fall under his influence as easily as Anakin once did. And R2 firmly believed that Anakin and Padmé, for all their flaws, would have worked out if Palpatine wasn’t there.

R2 beeped out something to Rey as she came walking into the Falcon with a small box. 

“Yes R2, Finn is just checking that everything is closed, and then we’re off.” Rey confirmed with a half-smile. For all her training, she was terrible at hiding her feelings.

“Are you okay?” R2 beeped out in a worried tone, seeing that look on her face.

“Yes R2, I’m just a bit sad that we have to leave already.” Rey told him honestly.

Not long after, they were in hyperspace, sitting comfortably in silence. There was no animosity there, but Rey couldn’t help but feel nervous. Returning to base in itself wasn’t scary, nor was being in hyperspace, but the prospect of returning back there after finally getting a taste of life without worries felt less and less tempting. They knew there was a lot to be done, but at the same time, hadn’t they already done their part? Finn now had to return back to work, meaning she would only see him for a few hours a day again, and she had to fill the time with her own studies, studies she really wanted to make him a part of, but couldn’t fully integrate him into due to his increasing responsibilities around base.

Her line of thought was suddenly broken with the sound of alarms going off in the cockpit. 

“Rey, we’re dropping out of hyperspace!” Finn exclaimed, suddenly seeing how things had slowed down outside of the cockpit. 

“Yes Finn, I can tell.” Rey said, scrambling out of her seat to try to find out what had gone wrong. “Keep the ship steady Finn, I’m going to go take a look.” 

“Okay, will do.” Finn agreed, knowing that Rey was a far better mechanic than he was. And it was her ship after all, she should know this. Or is it her ship? He really wasn’t sure who owned it anymore, but shook himself out of that train of thought, deciding to focus on keeping the ship flying. 

Meanwhile, Rey followed a hunch and went straight to the hyperdrive. Finding it quickly, she saw what the issue was. She decided to put her hand on it to pull it off to look closer at it. “OW! Fuck!” She shouted out, the hyperdrive being scorching hot, leading her to remove her hand instantly. Frustrated, she made her way back to the cockpit to inform Finn about what she knew. 

“Find anything?” Finn asked as soon as she approached the room, sensing her getting closer to him.

“Yeah, the hyperdrive has overheated badly. I don’t know exactly why, but I think the cooling system might be broken. Going to go check that too, just wanted to inform you.” She explained in response.

“Oh, okay. Is the hyperdrive okay?” Finn asked in follow up.

“I don’t know, it’s stupidly hot, I can’t get it off until it cools down a bit. I think I burned myself.” Rey said, looking down at her hand.

“Let me look at it.” Finn said, now turning to look at Rey, who stretched out her right hand to him. “Oh wow, yeah that might be a burn.” He said, looking at her blood now very red palm. “I think we have something for that in the first aid kit.” 

“I’ll go take a look.” Rey said, and turned to go find the kit. A while later, she had applied some cream to it, and wrapped up her hand in a bandage, rather wanting to be safe than sorry. One-handedly, she then started opening up the cooling system for the hyperdrive, and only to confirm what she already knew. 

“Okay, so I checked the cooling system now, and we need a new part for it. We don’t have a spare for it here, so we’re going to need to buy it.” Rey explained as she entered the cockpit, with Finn listening while keeping his eyes forward.

“Is it possible to jump into hyperspace without it?” Finn asked, not proficient enough with the technical aspects of ships to know himself.

“Technically yes, but we would most likely end up in a ball of flames long before we arrive at Ojom to refuel.” Rey explained, her voice dead serious as she detailed what would be a quite gruesome death for both of them, and R2. “And I’d have to disable the heat detection system to even do that. I installed that to prevent us from burning to cinder, and I’d rather not take the chance of turning it off.” 

“Okay, so we need to get to a planet that might have parts.” Finn said, stating the obvious.

“Yeah, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. Me and Chewie have changed a lot of the parts due to age, and getting compatible parts wasn’t too difficult.” Rey explained.

“Yes, but where are we even? I know the path, but not exactly where on it we are.” Finn said, having planned where they would refuel to and from Naboo. 

“I don’t know either. I see a planet there, but I don’t know which it is.” Rey admitted, not good enough at space geography to recognize every planet in existence yet. “Wait a second, maybe R2 knows.” She suddenly thought out loud, and ran out to the main room to find the droid, who had remained quiet during all of this.

“R2, there you are. The hyperdrive doesn’t work, and we need parts to fix the cooling system, but we don’t know where we are. Can you help us?” Rey asked the droid, who then rolled out into the cockpit as if he was ignoring her, with Rey looking on confused. She decided to follow, and found R2 parked inside of the cockpit, looking out. 

“That’s Corellia.” R2 beeped out to them, recognizing the planet from previous trips there long ago.

“Fuck.” Finn muttered, not happy about the planet they had ended up at.

“Yeah, that’s not ideal. But it could work. If any planet has the parts we need, then it’s that one.” Rey said, knowing about Corellia’s pedigree in ship building.

“Yes, but the First Order still has presence there. It’s not exactly safe.” Finn said, having scouted out where to refuel before they left from Ajan Kloss.

“It’s not safe to drift around slowly in space either. Getting to Ojom will take ages.” Rey countered.

“I guess we have no other choice then.” Finn sighed, and set the course for Corellia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again, sorry this took so long to get out. Had some school stuff to get through, and I got lost in a videogame, even dabbling in writing a fic for that game. Either way, the chapter is _finally_ out now, so I hope you'll enjoy!
> 
> Oh, and I'm no expert in Star Wars ships and the technical terms regarding them, so I apologize if I said something that is blatantly wrong or doesn't even exist in the SW universe. Suspend your disbelief or something, idk.


	35. We Need To Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finn and Rey find themselves on Corellia, looking for parts for the Falcon. Unfortunately, the planet also happens to be under First Order control.

Corellia was quiet. For a place famed for constructing ships, there sure were few of them flying around in the air as they made their approach. Flying at a normal height for a populated planed, they scouted for a repair shop for ships. “What about that place?” Finn asked, pointing out what looked like a mildly sized junkyard with a big, neon red sign saying _Iverson’s Repair Shop_. 

“Yeah, that should work. Hopefully.” Rey said, and set course for the landing pad. Clearly a fairly wealthy shop, the shop had an adjacent wide landing pad with a roof, capable of housing at least 4 starfighters. That meant that it had enough space for Rey to land the Falcon under the roof without any trouble.

“Looks cold out there, better bring your jacket.” Finn said as they left the cockpit to go get acquainted with their new surroundings.

“Mhm, I will. Have your blaster ready, I have a bad feeling about this place.” Rey added in response.

“Way ahead of you.” Finn said, and showed off the silver and black DD6 blaster pistol in his holster.

“Okay. But we don’t engage unless we have to. Ideally, we go in, get our parts, I install them, and then we leave.” Rey said, just to make sure they were on the same page.

“Of course.” Finn responded.

They walked out together, with R2 staying behind on the Falcon, and found the entrance to the repair show. Inside, they were greeted by a human male with pale skin, brown hair, and thick eyebrows. “Welcome to Iverson’s, I’m the owner. How can I help you?” He said in a welcoming tone.

Finn had decided to let Rey do the talking, seeing as she knew what they needed, and all the details of the ship. “Hi, we’re looking for parts for a cooling system for our hyperdrive.” Rey said, getting straight to the point.

“Okay, what type of ship is it?” 

“It’s a YT-1300f light freighter.” Rey responded instantly, leaving Finn amazed. He had no clue what the Falcon’s actual model name was, yet Rey already knew.

“Ah, older model. Is the hyperdrive original or has it been changed since?” Iverson asked.

“Custom fitted hyperdrive.” Rey started saying, and Finn could feel himself drifting out of the conversation. Rey started detailing the hyperdrive model and the cooler, so the owner would know if he had that exact one. Meanwhile, Finn’s eyes drifted around the room, which was filled with everything from half-built to various button tops. 

“Finn?” Rey suddenly asked, looking at him with a worried look.

“What?” Finn responded, broken out of his little trance.

“You kind of disappeared on me there. Are you okay?” Rey asked, sounding worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just not good at these things, so I just looked around the room.” Finn responded, and he could see Rey getting calmer.

“Okay. Well as I was saying, I’m going to go look at the part, he thinks he might have it somewhere in the back.” Rey said, repeating what she had said while Finn wasn’t paying attention.

“Okay. I’ll just wait here. Stay safe.” Finn said. 

“Okay, I will. Be back soon.” Rey said, then walked off to catch up with Iverson.

While he waited, Finn started looking closer around the room. He noticed what looked like an astromech droid, not too dissimilar to R2. They were less common these days, he had learned, but some still existed. Rey had however been able to acquire new rocket boosters for R2, after his old ones had malfunctioned. He had explained to Rey that his original ones got worn out, but that Luke replaced them after the civil war. Rey had been able to put in an order for some new ones along with some parts for the Falcon, and thanks to that, R2 could yet again boost himself up to places. As the droid himself had put it, it was useful against stairs and battle droids.

Suddenly, a new person strolled into the store, another human male, a bit older than the shopkeeper was and with greying hair. “Hello, I need some parts for a hydraulic system.” The man said, introducing himself to Finn.

“Oh, hi. Sorry, I don’t work here. I’m just waiting for my girlfriend, she’s in the back looking for some parts with the shopkeeper. They should be back soon.” Finn said with a smile, slightly amused that the man thought he worked there.

“Ah, I see. Letting your girlfriend do the part-shopping for you huh? She must be something else.” The man said, a bit surprised by what Finn had said.

“That’s one way of putting it. She’s way better at parts and fixing things than I am, so I let her deal with it.” Finn said, feeling like something else was an understatement.

After that, they drifted into silence, both of them curiously checking around the room. A bit later, Rey returned with a part in hand. She walked over to the counter, and placed the item down. She handed over the required credits, and then waved for Finn to come with her. Before they exited, the shopkeeper suddenly called out to them.

“Wait, can I see the ship? Been so long since I saw that model.” He asked.

Finn and Rey exchanged looks. Neither really wanted anyone to study the ship, as it could possibly be recognized, but saying no would just raise suspicion. “Eh, okay.” Rey uttered with some hesitation in her voice.

They walked out, and the shopkeeper came jogging after them, apologizing to the other customer for having to wait a bit extra. 

“I’m going to go install the part, keep watch outside.” Rey said to Finn as they reached the ramp, with Rey opening it normally for once. 

“Okay, will do.” Finn said, and turned around to look the other way as Rey walked inside.

“Oh wow, that is a rare sight.” Iverson exclaimed, at seeing the ship in front of him. “How did you come to own this thing, if I may ask?”

“Long story.” Finn deflected, lacking an explanation that wouldn’t give away their allegiance.

“Okay.” Iverson said, not pushing it further. “They used to make these ships around these parts. It’s a Corellian ship. Really old model. Surprised it’s still flying. To think one would just show up back here today.” He said, admiring the ship in front of him.

“Life is full of surprises. You never know when your hyperdrive cooling is going to malfunction. Just glad it happened near a planet where we could find parts.” Finn said, trying to be conversational enough to not act suspicious.

“Right. Anyway, I need to go check on my customer. Can’t leave the locals waiting, or else they won’t return. Have a safe trip!” Iverson said, then hurried back inside, leaving Finn no time to respond.

Finn kept waiting outside while Rey installed the part inside. Soon enough, the other customer had left, wishing them safe travels. Then suddenly, Finn heard another ship landing. An imperial troop transporter. Finn stood there, remaining calm, like he belonged there. Four troopers headed inside to the shop, while a few stood outside of the transporter, eying the Falcon and Finn. Internally, Finn was screaming. “Rey, hurry up, there are Stormtroopers here!” His mind screamed out, and he just hoped Rey could hear it. 

The troopers that walked inside came out again, with the store owner in tow. “It’s that ship right there.” He said, pointing to Falcon. Two troopers walked over to Finn, while a the other two stood by the shopkeeper. “Sir, does this ship belong to you?” One of the troopers asked Finn.

Inside, Rey had heard Finn’s thoughts, and hurried up to get the part in place. Then she heard someone talk to Finn. She turned around and ran over to R2. “Sword!” She exclaimed, and R2 shot her sword up, with Rey grabbing it in the air and storming over to the entrance. As she rounded the corner to the ramp, she heard 4 quick gunshot. “FINN!” She called out in terror, but he had been the one shooting. She ran out, and ignited the sword as another shot was fired. 

“AARRRRHH FUCK.” Finn called out in agony, as the shot had hit his upper arm. Rey got out and faced towards the trooper to the right of the ramp, standing between them and Finn. Her yellow lightsaber shining brightly in front of her as she deftly blocked their shots.

“Finn, get inside if you can, we need to go.” She said, as the troopers opened fire on her. Finn, still hurt, scurried off inside as Rey kept blocking the barrage of shots from the two troopers. With a lucky strike, she was able to hit one right back at a trooper, seemingly killing him.

“She’s got a lightsaber. Call backup, call backup!” The remaining trooper called out, and more troops came storming out of the transport, and more was most likely on the way. Rey tore down a piece of the roof right in front of them, causing a distraction before she ran back up the ramp, pushing the button furiously with the force to close it after her. “FINN, WE NEED TO GO!” She screamed out, running towards the cockpit. Finn, who had gotten to the pilot’s chair and looked in great discomfort, managed to take off as she got into the cockpit. He steered the ship out of the landing pad, and then Rey without warning pulled the lever to take them to hyperspace. They had no specific direction, but they had to go.

“Fuck, Finn, are you okay?” Rey said as soon as they jumped. 

“Yeah, hurts though.” Finn said.

“You can still feel your arm?” Rey asked, looking at his arm with a worried tone.

“Yes, just hurts. Are you fine?” Finn asked in return.

“Yes, I’m fine, but that doesn’t matter right now. I’ll set a course for Ojom again, and then we’re applying some bacta before it gets infected.” Rey instructed, and then pulled them right out of hyperspace, before setting a specific course and jumping right back in.

“You’re crazy, you know that?” Finn said, amazed at seeing Rey pull off a manoeuvre like that. 

“Shut up. I’m getting the bacta.” Rey said, not in the mood for his jokes. 

Rey returned shortly after, and got Finn to discard of his jacket. She rolled up the ruined sleeve of his shirt to get a good look at his wound. “Good thing it just grazed you, that could have been bad.” Rey commented when she saw it.

“Still feels kind of bad, not gonna lie.” Finn said, laughing a bit.

“Finn. You could have died. How did you even manage to take down four of them?” She asked, dead serious.

“I’m quick, Rey. I would have been fine if the pistol didn’t overheat after the fourth shot. I fired, but nothing happened, and then I got hit myself.” Finn explained.

“Finn, you need to know those things, or else things can end really badly.” Rey said, looking at him worriedly.

“I do know that, but I didn’t really have any choice. I didn’t have any natural cover, so I just hoped it would let me fire again. But I’m fine, thanks to you. So, thank you Rey, for saving me.” Finn said, initially frustrated, but then smiling fondly at her by the end.

“Of course, you idiot.” Rey said, giving his healthy should a little push.

“How did you even manage to get it installed that quick? Did you hear me?” Finn asked, looking her right in the eyes.

Rey nodded. “Yes, I heard you. And I was nearly done, I just hurried up and tried to get there as fast as I could, hoping you could stall them.” 

“Okay, that’s good.” Finn muttered out loud, mostly to himself.

“Did you doubt that I could hear you through the force?” Rey asked, looking at him quizzically. 

“No, it was just good to know that I’m able to do it under pressure. I’ve never used it in a situation like that before.” Finn responded, making sure she knew that he wasn’t doubting _her_.

“Oh. That makes sense.” Rey said, realizing she hadn’t thought about it that way. “This might hurt a little bit.” She warned, before cleaning his wound.

As she warned, it did hurt, but it was necessary. All too familiar with treating cuts, Rey sat there cleaning his wound. Lastly, she applied bacta, and Finn felt himself shiver from the feeling off the cold substance against his skin. Carefully, she applied a bandage to his arm, wrapping it tightly before biting off the end of it and taping it stuck.

“Thank you.” Finn said once she was done.

“Of course, Finn. It should do for now, but I want to get it checked to a professional once we get to Ojom, I think I saw a medical facility there.

“That’s probably a good idea. Think we got away cleanly?” He asked, before standing up and indicating that they swap seats so Rey could be the pilot.

Rey slipped into the right seat, then replied. “Hopefully. Unless they put a tracker on us, and I doubt they had the time to, we’ll be difficult to follow. I’ll check the ship once we’re there though, just in case they damaged something before we got away.” 

“Sounds like a plan.” Finn agreed.

Luckily, the jump to Ojom wasn’t a time-consuming one, nor a fuel consuming one. They didn’t get the chance to refuel at Correllia, but thankfully Finn had planned for emergencies when he mapped out refuelling stops for their trip. The stopped at the same space station as they did on their way to Naboo, and Rey brought Finn to the medical facility she had spotted last time. While he was there, Rey decided to get the ship refuelled, and to do the necessary checks on the Falcon.

After Finn was done, he came walking back to find Rey inspecting the rear-end of the ship.

“Does everything look okay?” He asked as he approached.

“Oh, hey. Yes, things look fine. I think we got lucky. What did the doctor say?” Rey asked, more worried about Finn than the ship.

“Same thing you just did. Said I got lucky. Wound looks fine. She complimented your work, by the way, but she redressed it after checking it out.” Finn said, still oddly cheerful considering he had been shot.

“Oh. That’s good. I’ve refuelled, just a few minutes and we should be ready to go.” Rey said, and turned her focus back to inspecting the ship.

“Okay. I’ll go back inside and get us ready for take-off.” Finn said, then got back inside. Back inside, he found a bag he had stashed in the coldest room of the ship, where they had put some food. He put it on the table in the main area, greeted R2, then went into the cockpit to check that everything was okay. 

After a bit, Rey came wandering inside, and sat down in the pilot’s chair. “What’s with the food on the table?” She asked, looking curiously at Finn.

“Figured we could eat for a bit once we jump, been hours, and quite frankly we’ve been through enough for one day.” Finn said, smiling back at her.

“Hm. Yeah, I’d like that.” Rey said, looking forward to finally sitting down a relaxed meal. She started initiating take-off, and before they knew it, they were back in hyperspace, heading back to Ajan Kloss.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please leave feedback if you have any! :)


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